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The Ariierican Press 



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Lithuania's Freedom 



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The American Press 



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Lithuania's Freedom 



Published by 

TAUTOS FONDAS 

458 GRAND STREET 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 

1920 



FOREWORD 




HIS book is published for the purpose of showing 
'P 1j the interest taken by the American press in the 
Lithuanian people's fight for independence and 
freedom. 

During a period when news of important character has 
poured into newspaper offices in a volume never even 
approached at any previous period, the newspapers of the 
United States have published columns of matter pertaining 
to Lithuania. 

No better proof of the essential justice of Lithuania's 
cause could be asked. Whatever the American editor's 
views may be regarding local afifairs, his attitude toward 
the question of Lithuanian independence, of Polish im- 
perialism, etc., is that of the unbiased, impartial, analytical 
observer and judge who forms his opinions according to 
the dependable evidence submitted. It affords us, therefore, 
the greatest satisfaction to know that an overwhelming 
majority of the daily press of the I'nitcd States is supporting 
the claims of the Lithuanian people. 

The clippings reproduced herein are taken from 
thousands Which have been gathered from the countrj^'s 
papers. They show nof only the importance attached to 
Lithuanian affairs by the .American press, but they show 
also something of the development of events in the Baltic 
countries during the past months — a panoramic view of 
the courageous struggles of the Lithuanian people to raise 
up a new Lithuania out of the ashes of the old. 

P. MOLIS. 



Lithuania, Our Country! 

Lietuva, Tevyne Mustj. ! 

T ITHUANIA, our country, 

Land of might you'll ever be; 
Through the ages, your fond sons 
Have gathered strength from thee. 

Lithuania, your children 
Paths of Righteousness shall tread; 
For their native land they'll labor — 
Earth's aspiring aims they've bred! 

Fount of Light, may your bright sun. 
Pierce all that's in darkened sheen 
Show us Truth's noble way. 
And we'll follow in your gleam! 

In our hearts, Lithuania, 
Love for you will dwell fore'er; 
Spirit of the World is soaring — 
Caught in your exalted glare! 

Copyright 1919 by Thomas Shamis 



Permi6sion of 
The Lithuanian Booster, New York City. January, 1920 



A GREAT LITTLE NATION 

Xcw York Herald, April 18, 1919. 

This is the day of the little nation and of self-determination. 
There was never a more self-determined nation than Lithuania, and 
she is not so little, either. A country with an area of nearly 50,000 
square miles and with a population of over six millions — a million 
more than either Ireland or Australia — has claims which cannot be 
disregarded. And every day they become more audible and more 
insistent. Left largely to her own resources, Lithuania is bravely 
fighting not merely for her own rights and liberties but for those 
of civilization, for she is opposing herself to Bolshevism after having 
fought resolutely and successfully against Prussianism. Surely such 
a nation deserves the sympathy and support of other democratic 
countries in her efforts for autonomy and claims to recognition by 
the L^nited States as well as all the other members of the League of 
Nations. 

The Lithuanians, whose country has on its borders East Prussia, 
Poland and Russia, are neither Slavs nor Teutons. They are a 
separate race, with a noble history which has been largely a long 
struggle against oppression and dbliteration by invading Poles, Teu- 
tons and Russians. But they have never lost their ethnographic 
identity as a branch of the Indo-European family, with a rich and 
cojiious language based on Sanskrit — to which, it may be said, Lithu- 
anian is the modern key — as well as folk tales and songs and noble 
traditions, if not a literature; for the attempted suppression of the 
Lithuanian language by Teuton and Slav oppressors prevented its 
use in the printed page for a long period. In the new republican 
administration there is perfect religious liberty. 

The country has been invaded and ravaged first by the Ger- 
mans and then by the Russians, but the people have bravely with- 
stood attacks from every quarter and to-day stand dauntless in the 
struggle against the malign forces let loose by Lenine. The news 
has recently arrived that Vilna, the ancient capital, has been freed 
from Bolshevist domination and that the Russian hordes are receding 
before Lithuanian forces. A telegram from Kovno, another important 
Lithuanian city, states that the whole district of Ponovesch and 
Vilkcmer is now cleared of Bolshevist troops, while a soviet regi- 
ment retreating from Vilna was entirely destroyed. It is added that 

S 



the Lithuanians, having captured many prisoners and much booty, 
are continuing the pursuit of the retreating Bolshevist. 

This is news of importance to the civilized world and will 
arouse fresh sympathy and admiration for a brave and noble nation 
which is every day additionally proving its right to be included 
among the free and independent states of Europe. It is good news 
to learn that Britain has already extended help in munitions of war 
and other necessaries and has recognized the national independence 
of the new Lithuanian Republic. The War Trade Board has also 
lifted its ban on trade with that country, which is significant. Doubt- 
less Congress will take an early opportunity of signifying its desire 
that Lithuania be recognized as an independent state by the nation 
whose executive head has been the chief protagonist of the small 
nations. 



LITHUANIAN REPUBLIC NOW HAS PRESIDENT 

Evening M(fil, New York. City, April 10, 1919. 

A dispatch to the Lithuanian National Council from its Berne 
office controverts reports published in yesterday's newspapers under 
Copenhagen date that the president of the Lettish republic was 
inaugurated at Kovno. 

The cable states that the president of the Lithuanian republic 
was inaugurated at Kovno, provisional capital of Lithuania, since 
Vilna is in the hands of the enemy Bolshevik forces. It adds that 
Anthony Smetona was elected president of Lithuania by the Taryba, 
or national parliament, and took his oath of office before that body 
April 4. 

Smetona is a Lithuanian lawyer who has been actively con- 
nected with that country's fight for independence since he entered 
public life twenty years ago. He was born at Shauliai, Lithuania, 
the son of an organist. Tie was educated at the gymnasium of Libau 
and the University of Moscow. In 1918, when Lithuania declared 
its independence, he was the man principally responsible for the forma- 
tion of the national convention (jut of which grew the national 
parliament, or Taryba. 



RENT QUESTION IS AS ANCIENT AS MAN 
Lithuania, Oldest Republic in Europe, Has Solved Land Problem 

, , Sun. Kexv York City, May 1919. 

■ Next to the ownership of women and herds of cattle, land- 
holding is probably the oldest form of private property in the world. 
From the outset, it was bound to be one of the most important forms 

6 



of private property, for no matter how plentiful land might be, it was 
nevertheless always at the basis of human life. Nomadic tribes 
needed grazing land for their her<ls. and wars for the possession of 
fertile, well watered territory are recoided as early as human history 
can be traced. 



LITHUANIAN SPEECH A WORLD MYSTERY 

Language Most Admirably Preserves Forms of 
Primitive Aryan Tongues 

Cleveland Plain Dealer, .'Lpril 15. 1919. 

Priceless treasures of art were destroyed in France and Bel- 
gium by the Germans, but time will replace most of these or will 
substitute works of art which will be monuments to the new age, 
the Democratic era, which is being ushered in. Wc mourn the Ibss 
of those monuments of the enlightenment that followed the dark 
ages, but we shall recover them through the increased enlightenment 
of the people who are about to begin a new evolution into liberty, 
equality and fraternity, which they have never known. 

Shall we neglect to preserve a treasure that has not yet been 
destroyed although efforts to that end have been made for centuries ? 

Aside from the Lithuanian people on)}' philologists know the 
value of the Lithuanian language. They realize the value of a 
language that ties the glories of the past to the present. They know 
the duty to civilization which has been performed by those who have 
kept the Lithuanian language from being lost. Let the philologists 
speak for themselves. 

Benjamin D, Dwight, in "Modern Philology," has written : 
"This (the Lithuanian language) is a language of a great value to the 
philologist. It is the most antique in its forms of all living languages 
of the world, and most akin in its substance and spirit to the 
primeval Sanscrit. It is also at the same time so much like the 
Latin and the Greek as to occupy the ear of the etymologist, in the 
multitude of words not otherwise understood, in the place of the 
interpretei- ; with its face fixed on Latin and its hand pointing back- 
ward to the Sanscrit. It is like an universal interpreter, seeming to 
have the gift of tongues, since its tongue is so greatly like the ies( 
in preserving the purse of prime model, from which they are all 
corrupt dcrivatcd, as to seem in whatever language you hear t\v: 
chime of that language, ringing loud and clear from ancient time." 

Isaac Taylor, in his "Origin of the Aryans," says: "Judged by 
this standard the Lithuanian, among European languages, has the 

T 



best claim to represent primitive speech. More perfectly even than 
Greek, far more perfectly than Gothic, it has preserved the original 
inflections as well as the original sounds. Thus it would seem that 
the Lithuanians have the best claim to represent the primitive Aryan 
race, as their language exhibits fewer of those phonetic changes, and 
of those grammatical losses which are consequent on the acquire- 
ment of the foreign speech. It would seem from the linguistic 
evidence, that the Teutons got from their Celtic and Lithuanian 
neighbors their first knowledge of agriculture and metals, of many 
weapons and articles of food and clothing, as well as the most ele- 
mentary, social, religious and political conceptions — the words from 
nation, people, king and magistrate being, for instance, loan words 
from the Celtic or Lithuanian." 

Shall such a race, a people, a nation, coming down through 
the ages to modern times, be permitted to disappear? Shall our 
neglect result in destroying that which has persisted through trials 
and tribulations down the ages to today? 

Shall this ancient democratic people be given the cup of hem- 
lock in the name of Democracy? Shall a people be crucified whose 
fault, in the eyes of autocracy, has been the adherence to the prirhitive 
virtues? 



LITHUANIA'S FATE RESTS UPON PEACE CONFERENCE 

Poland Will Have Much to Say Concerning 
Her Ultimate Disposition 

The Daily Princetonian, Princeton, N. ./., April 29, 1919. 

Recent reports from Lithuania have been meager, roundabout, 
and sometimes conflicting. It seems clear, however, that the tempo- 
rary government that was organized by the Lithuanians even during 
the dark days of German occupation has been succeeded by a republic 
that gives every promise of permanency. On the fourth of thi? 
month a president was elected in the person of A. Smetona, a lawyer 
who had formerly been president of the Taryba, or Lithuanian Na- 
tional Council, and later premier of the provisional government. 

But the fate of Lithuania cannot be determined in Vilna alone; 
it must be confirmed in Paris. As in all territorial questions, it is 
largely a matter of one's neighbors. The Bolsheviki have an army 
in Lithuania and are trying to hold the former Russian provinces 
to Russia. The Poles want as much of Lithuania as they can get. 
The attitude of the Germans has been consistent only in the fact 
that it was always opportunistic. 

8 



Almost Assimilated by Germany 

For a long time after the conquest oi' Lithuania there was no 
thought in Germany save that of complete assimilation. But Ger- 
many's ambitions declined with her prospects through the following 
stages: absorption into Prussia; a duchy with a Hohenzellern as 
duke; a kingdom in the German Em])ire with Prince Oscar as king; 
a more or less independent kingilom established by and between the 
two Teutonics empires with the Duke of Urach as king; an independ- 
ent Lithuania under what Germany called "an economic and indus- 
trial alliance" providing that Lithuania should renounce all access 
to the Baltic, place her armies and strategic points under German 
military command, deliver her raw materials and cereals to Germany, 
hand over to Germany the control of her finances, railways, and con- 
sular representation. Apart from these trifling concessions T^ithuania 
could be quite independent. 

Last fall, when German collapse was imminent, Prince Maxi- 
milian, the Imperial Chancellor, cast a final sop to democracy by 
proposing that Lithuania, Poland, and the Baltic States "shall reg- 
ulate their constitutions and their relations with neighboring peoples 
without external interference." The latest, and probably the last, 
instance of German interference in Lithuanian affairs was the offer 
made to Lithuania b\- the president of East Prussia of military aid 
against the Bolsheviki. The Lithuanian government considered the 
offer perfidious and made no reply. Recent advices received by our 
State Department would seem to justify Lithuania's skepticism. 
Last week, under the pretext of helping the Letts to fight the Bolsh- 
viki, German troops seized Libau and overthrew the Lettish pro- 
visional government. 

Poland a Bitter Antagonist 

Germany will have nothing to say as to the final disposition 
of Lithuania, but, unfortunately, Poland will have a great deal to 
say. For centuries there has been bitter antagonism between the two 
peoples. Poland bases "historical claims" to all of Lithuania on the 
Union of Lublin, by which Poland anil Lithuania were to constitute 
one indivisible body politic. But Lithuania was never a part of 
Poland: and several things have happened in Europe since 1569, 
among them the partitions of Poland and Lithuania, and the recent 
war — not to mention the fact that Lithuania once extended from the 
Baltic to the Black Sea and covered much of the territory that Poland 
now properly claims. The United States could be returned to Great 
Britain or to the Indians on better "historical claims" than Poland 
has on Lithuania. 



Xo people in Europe has better right to independence than 
Poland; all the world wants her to be free. But Polish imperialism 
has by no means been entirely absorbed by the new Polish republic. 
Fortunately for the peace of eastern Europe, neither Jane Porter nor 
Ignace Paderewski — imaginative artists, both — is a member of the 
Peace Conference. No disposition is apparent in Paris to deny inde- 
p'endence to either Poland or Lithuania, but there still remain the 
questions of seaports and boundaries. It seems now that the former 
question will be solved by giving Poland some kind of a "corridor" 
through the valley of the Vistula and by making Danzig an inter- 
national port. The latter question is even more complicated. 

It has more than once been proposed that language be made the 
standard. How would one. apply, , the principle, for example, to 
Switzerland? Many people near the border are of Lithuanian stock 
and consider themselves Lithuanian, but speak only White Russian 
or Polish. >,Many others, espRcially those of mixed descent, are 
bilingual. The Jews, for example, speak both Lithuanian and Yid- 
dish. The Peace Conference ^e.^ms disppsed, tp accept the ethnolog- 
ical, criteripn) prpppSjed, by,,, the , Lithwanians., without, of course, 
accepting their overambitious claims. Racial figures are available 
from Russian, German,, and Lithuanian official sources. The British, 
French, and ,Am,erican ej^p^rts have, also their estimates. The dis- 
crepancies are often fantastic ; at present all such figures are mere 
guess-work. 

If the only .^ttfrej foundation for national life is the will of the 
people, it would appear advisable that the boundaries should be 
fixed by means of a plebiscite conducted under the direction of an 
Allied commission on a basis of small territorial units, say the German 
"Kreise" of the former Russian circles. Each district would decide 
by popular vote whether it wished to form a part of the Lithuanian 
republic or cast its lot with its alternatives neighbor, Russian, Lettish, 
Polish, or German. 

It is obvious that much more is involved than Lithuania. In 
recent month much blood has been shed between the Poles and the 
Ukrainians over eastern Galicia. The former claim the territory on 
historical grounds, the latter on preponderances of population. The 
Ukrainians have offered tp settle the dispute by plebiscite, but 
Premier Padarewski refuses;; he even declines to agree to an arm- 
istice until Poland has conquered m.ore territory. Certainly all such 
matters will have to be adjusted by the Peace Conference if success 
is to come to the Allied plan of building across Europe a bulwark 
of firmly established states against Bolshevism and governamental 
chaos. 

10 



NEW NATION IS ASKING RIGHTS 
Lithuania Would Be Recognized by America as a Free Country 



SELF-DETERMINATION IS AIM OF REPUBLIC 
National Council in United States Plans Campaign to Present Cause. 

Free Press. Detroit. Mich., April HO, 1919. 

New York, April 19. — It is amiounced by the Lithuanian 
national council in America that a petition to the president of the 
United States and to the secretary of state is to be made by Amer- 
icans for the recognition of the Lithuania as an independent state. 

Millions of copies are being circulated through the entire 
United States by the branches of the Lithuanian National Council, 
which has over 800,000 members here. 

Want Self-Determination 

The petition bases the claim of the Lithuanians for self-deter- 
mination and independence on their distinct ethnic entity, and on 
their present attempt to combat Russian domination. 

England has promised aid and recognition to the new Baltic 
republic, and Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland have accepted its 
diplomatic representatives. 

Immediate steps will be taken by the provisional government 
and its affiliations in the United States to acquaint the American 
people with the aspirations, the situation and the needs of the new 
nation of 6,000,000 people. It stands today as the bulwark against 
Russian bolshevism, with its soldiers actually at the present time co- 
belligerents — although unrecognized — of the American and Allied 
forces against the bolshevist armies. 

To Present Truth 

To this end, the Lithuanian national council in America is 
inaugurating a great campaign, with the purpose of bringing to the 
people of America and of the world, the truth about Lithuania's 
cause, and the right of her people to the same autonomy in their 
own affairs as is being granted to the oppressed groups of central 
and eastern Europe. 

The Lithuanians in their struggle for recognition here, after 
centuries of opression by Prussians and by Russians, have laid aside 
all their differences, political and otherwise, as well as all questions 
of territory and boundary. They seek only the same privilege, and 
the recognition, to govern themselves, that has been accorded to 
other racial and territorial groups in Europe today. To this end, 

U 



they are maintaining their eastern boundaries by a battle-line against 
the bolsheviki forces. 

Lithuania at present includes approximately 33,430 square^ 
miles of territory and a population estimated at 6,000,000 people, 
governed by a provisional, republican form of government, dating 
from an independence declared from Germany and Russia on Decem- 
ber 11, 1917. The new government administrates the army, the 
schools, the communications system and all the other functions of 
government. Its head is President A. Smetona, its prime minister 
A. Valdemar, who is at present seeking recognition for his people 
at the peace conference at Paris. 

Lithuania is distictly an agricultural country with great un- 
developed natural resources, bounded on the north by Courland and 
the River Dvina as far as Druja, thence a line drawn slightly south- 
westerly passes through Novogrodek and as far as Slonim, thence 
west by northwest, passing south of Grodno, including part of East 
Prussia, on up to the Baltic, ending at Konigsberg. 



LITHUANIA'S CLAIM 

Boston, Mass., Herald, April 11, 1919. 



The obeservence of Saturday as independence day by the Lith- 
uanians in the United States will be essentially a declaration against 
the incorporation of their country with Poland. Of this we shall 
hear at their meetings that day on Boston Common and the following 
day in Faneuil Hall. They seem to fear that the Polish delegates 
at Paris may obtain from the peace conference a decision that would 
interfere with independence which Lithuania claims. Such a decision 
is not likely. Lithuania proclaimed herself a republic long ago, and 
her representatives have beeen heard in support of her recovery of 
national freedom. The policy of the conference council favors the 
erection of a strong Poland, and this involves the reunion of the 
Polish-peopled portions of the country that were seized by Russia, 
Germany and Austria in their successive partitions of the once power- 
ful kingdom. But to include the provinces of which the former grand 
duchy of Lithuania was composed, with inhabitants opposed to that 
inclusion, would not give Poland strength. It would cause internal 
weakness. 

History may say that Lithuania was a part of Poland, or even 
that for a considerable time they were politically identical, but their 
union was effected by a method to which democratic nations in 
these days will not give the slightest weight. The marriage of a 
prince and a princess cannot now be regarded as having made two 



peoples one. In the 14th century Olgerd, prince of Lithuania, ex- 
tended his dominion into southern Russia, and his son, Jagello, 
married the heiress of tiie king of Poland and founded the dynasty of 
the Jagellons. This was the lirst link-of connection between the two 
states. The last link was welded in 1569 by their complete political 
unity. They were Poland, with one government for the united peo- 
ples, and for a century more this Poland prospered under the Jagellon 
line, which then became extinct. 

Both the Poles and the Lithuanians respects that line of repu- 
table sovereigns, and they have no quarrel about the past. But the 
present has called each of them up to the stage of republican self- 
government. Each answers the call and wishes to work out its own 
separate destiny. Why not? We believe that one as well as the 
other is entirely competent. It is but right that they should have 
their opportunity on the parallel paths of progress which they have 
chosen. Independence is priceless. And it is infinitely better for 
these sister republics that each should be free to act for itself than 
that the peoples should 1 e linked together without their mutual 
desire and consent. 



LITHUANIA AND FREEDOM 

Like Ireland and Poland, it never ceased to be a nation; 

by right of race, language, literature and desire 

it seeks independence 

The ColumMad, 1919. 

The story of Poland is one of heart-rending suffering, and 
Poland and Ireland have been very reasonably called the Rachel and 
the Niobe of nations. In both cases the attempt was made to suppress 
the nationality and the religion of freedom-loving peoples. It is use- 
less to repeat the tale of the horrors in Ireland before Daniel O'Connell 
and the famine of '44 forced commiseration from a world which 
politically and socially was still bound to the spiked chariot wheels 
of the nefarious Congress of Vienna. Poland, after the criminal parti- 
tion in which even the virtuous Maria Theresa, mother of Marie 
.\ntoinetlc, took part, suffered no less intensely than Ireland, and 
with less hope of redress, for, after all, there was an enlightened 
opinion in England to which Ireland could appeal — a slow-growing 
opinion, it is true, but, nevertheless, an opinion that made for right- 
eousness. 

No Country Suffered More 

This war has taught us one thing, which wc should not 
attempt to minimize or to evade; we must face it; and that is, that 

13 



today the impetus of nationality is stronger in its motive power than 
the belief in Christianity. The most ardent enemies of the freedom 
of Ireland have always been the Tory Catholics ; and Catholic Austria 
has never torn loose from the ideas that forced the dismemberment 
and the oppression of Poland. The popes of the Middle Ages hoped 
and worked for an entirely different condition of affairs, and Dante 
looked forward to the suppression of~mere local patriotism in favor 
of the universal reign of Christ, represented by the Catholic Church, 
guiding a temporal government. ii [ ..ri-. 

If Poland suffered, she cannot be said to be free from the stain 
of having forced her rule on another nation in the interest of her 
national aspirations. This is an interesting fact, too, that the Rus- 
sians, whom the Poles hated even more bitterly than the Germans, 
united with Poland in trying to stamp out the national aspirations of 
the unfortunate Lithuanians All this simply shows that until the 
coming of the new epoch of promise "of that divine eyent to which 
the whole Creation tends," national aspirations were seldom checked 
by ethical ideas or by the necessity of applying Christian principles 
to political conditions. It is quite true that Lithuania owed the bless- 
ings of Christianity to its enforced union with Poland, in 1386, when 
the Lithuanian Prince Jagla married the Polish Princess Yadviga. 
Lithuania was one of the last European nations to accept Christianity ; 
but this was very largely due to the attempt of the Gothic Teutonic 
orders to force the Christian religion on the Lithuanians from political 
motives. Religion was used as a tool for conquest; and the soldiers 
of the Cross unhappily, working in the interest of their nationalities, 
slew and burned and pillaged in the name of that Christ whose teach- 
ings they misapplied. The Poles still call Lithuania a Polish province, 
forgetting that quasi-union in 1385 was as unrighteous as that union 
between Great Britain and Ireland which Lord Castlereagh brought 
about by the outrageous corruption in the eighteenth century. 

No country has suffered more during the war than Lithuania ; 
she was between the devil and the deep sea ; the German and Russian 
armies advanced and retreated in the wretched government of Suwalki 
nine times. The Poles, the Slesvigers and Belgians have suffered 
horribly, as we all know, but the Lithuanians, forced, like the Poles, 
to fight for Germany, or, on the other hand, choosing to be part of 
the Russian forces rather than not assist the Allies, deserve the deep- 
est commiseration from all lovers of freedom. The heart-rending 
appeal made by the Lithuanians to the Holy Father was a mild state- 
ment of conditions which could not be exaggerated. 

There is a tendency in this country to confound the Lithuanians 
with the Letts. It is necessary to mark a distinction between these 
two peoples. The Letts are related to the Lithuanians, they live in 

14 



the governments of Courland, Livonia and Vitebsk ; the Bourussi, 
who lived on the River Vistula, to the west of Lithuania, have become 
Prussianized. The Lithuanians and Letts are neither of Slavic nor 
Teutonic extractions. Their language has more in common with the 
Sanscrit ; and in race the Lithuanians and the Letts have more Latin 
than Germanic characteristics. As ever>- Spaniard likes to be called 
Castilian, the Lithuanians and the Letts are not averse to being 
considered as having much in common with the old Persian and the 
Greeks. 

Lithuania, like Ireland and Poland, never ceased to be a nation, 
though its position as a State was abolished over and over again. A 
glance at the map will show vcn,' clearly how closely related in terri- 
torial position the Letts and the Lithuanians arc, and how hemmed 
in between their three ancient enemies — Poland. Russia and Germany. 
.\ glance at the map will show that to cut off Lithuania from the 
River Niemen would be to strangle her; American opinion, so potent 
now, must not permit this outrage. 

Deeply Attached to Church 

As far down as the tenth centuiy the Lithuanian .nation was 
living on the Baltic Sea; its population extended from Riga and the 
Gulf of Finland to Konigsberg: into the sixteenth century its posses- 
sion were dotted with the White Russians, — mostly of Lithuanian 
stock, — and the Little Russians. The Russians were of the Orthodox 
Faith and so permeated with those national ideas which the Orthodox 
Russian clergy propagated that they ceased to have any interest 
in the national aspirations of Lithuania. The majoritj^ of the Lith- 
uanians today — nearly eighty per cent, are Catholics — are deeply 
attached to the Church, in spite of the fact of the strong resentment 
among them for many years owing to the natural desire of the Polish 
clergA* to substitute what they regarded as a higher civilization for 
that of the Lithuanians. Their neighbors, the Letts, are mostly 
Lutherans. The Catholic minority live mostly in Courland and 
occupy about 4.600 square miles. They speak a slightly different 
language from the Lutherans, and seem more sj'mpathetic with the 
Lithuanian aspirations and ideals than their Protestant kinsmen. 
In that reconstruction which ought to take place, after the signing 
of the Treaty of Peace, it is hoped that the Catholic Letts may be 
incorporated with Lithuanians in a new, free State. 

I am afraid I should only bore my readers by going into the 
cosmogony and the details of the geographical situation of Lithuania, 
though it is impossible to understand their difficulties without refer- 
ence to a map. I should like to warn the reader, however, against 
mixing up the Borussians, or old Prussians, with the modern Prus- 

15 



sians, who simply adopted the name of Borussian branch of the 
Lithuanians. The great light until the downfall of the Lithuanian 
State was that of the language. On the preservation of the language 
of the people depend its indentity and its freedom and its culture ; 
no nation can be great without a distinctive literature. After its 
union with Lithuania, Poland, for a time, became a great world power. 
The forced union of Poland with Lithuania, a nation several times 
larger than Poland, was for a time aggrandized; but it ended in 
anarchy because of the lierce dissension between the recalcitrant Lith- 
uanians and the conquering Poles ; the Lithuanian-Polish kingdom, 
at one time the largest territorial in Europe, grew weaker and weaker. 
The Orthodox White Russians were at war with the Catholics ; the 
Lithuanians and the Letts did not hesitate to combine even with 
Sweden, the great Lutheran power, against Poland ; and at the end 
of the eighteenth century Lithuania, as a State, ceased to exist. Per- 
haps here I cannot do better than quote from Jusaitis' "History of 
the Lithuanian Nation" a very remarkable paragraph : 

State is Home of Nation 

"The state is not the nation. The state is only an institution 
of a nation ; that institution without which the nation can live 
long, even growing larger and stronger, as did the nomadic Israelites 
before the occupation of Canaan. A nation can be defined as a com- 
posite entity with customs, language, and a conscious spirit by which 
it conceives of itself as having a being distinct from that of any other 
similar group of humanity. * * * A state is, as we said, a national 
institution without which civilized nation cannot easily exist. A 
state is like the home of a nation, a guarantee of her self-independence ; 
\yithout it a nation, although it exists, is oppressed by others, robbed 
and often destroyed ; and serving a stranger, frequently forced to de- 
fend its very existence, it finds it difficult to achieve anything for 
the benefit of humanity. The life of a nation manifests itself in its 
traditions, which again are preserved in the national language and 
reveal themselves in its literature. Given a language and a literature, 
no nation can be considered to be dead or non-existent, for she her-' 
self is conscious of her existence. But if it is not also a state, another 
nation which compelled it to belong to it can oppress it, but cannot 
say that it as a nation does not exist." 

This express exactly the position of the nations of Europe which 
were dominated but not conquered. A wrong impression has been 
given that Lithuania is desirous of forcibly annexing to her territory 
that of her relatives, the Letts. It is difficult to understand how this 
impression got abroad, as never by word or act have representative 
Lithuanians expressed a desire for more territory. It would please 

16 



them, no doubt, .md strengthen tlieii' position if the Letts occupying 
the torritorj- known as "I.ietgahis" would join them, but this would 
be entirely a matter foi- determination on the part of the Catholic 
Letts. Whether such an amalganialion will ever take place will de- 
pend, not on the desire of the Lithuanians for this union, but on the 
disposition of the Letts, cither Catholic or Protestant. 

Lithuanian Literature 

Another misapprehension which exists, and which seems to 
be spread abroad in order to foster dissensions, is that the Catholic 
Lithuanians are less attached to the Catholic Church than the Poles, 
and that they look on that Church with suspicion as the main source 
of Polish propaganda in the past. This is not true. The existence 
of Lutheran and Calvinistic denominations in Lithuania, as well as 
the existence of the Orthodox Greek opinion, is due, not to dislike 
of the Catholic Church, but to other causes. German influence would 
be naturally Lutheran. Some of the most important books in Lith- 
uania came from the Protestant press in Keidany, where the famous 
Lithuanian prayer book, dedicated to Duke Janusz Radziwill, was 
published. Early in the eighteenth century the disciples of John Knox 
at Keidan}- published in Konigsberg the New Testament in the Lith- 
uanian language. In 1747 the Lithuanian dictionary appeared, and 
it was natural enough that Lithuanians, eagerly treasuring every good 
example of their language, should have been swayed by books of this 
kind influenced by Calvinism or Lutheranism. The Prussian Lith- 
uanian clergy were very active, and the German Government printed 
for distribution Martin Luther's Small Catechism. After a time the 
capital of Lithuania, Vilna. became less Germanized and the publica- 
tion of Protestant books, admirable from the grammatical point of 
view, became less frequent ; but Lithuania never lost the sense of a 
national literary life. Among important works was the great poem 
of Kr. Donelaitis, entitled Metu Laikai, "The Seasons of the Year." 

In 1864 Russia attempted to suppress the very source^ of 
Lithuanian nationality, the language. Poland had attempted to ab- 
sorb the nation, but even the Polanized Lithuanians never lost interest 
in their language or gave up their political consciousness ; Russia 
was determined to destroy all the things of the spirit that fed the 
soul of the nation. It was a crime to use or to keep any book written 
or printed in the language of the country. The Lithuanians who had 
been apparently forced to read no type, except Russian, managed to 
have books and newspapers printed in Latin symbols in Germany. 

Statistics show that ninety-five per cent, of the younger gene- 
ration can read and write the language of the forefathers. With all 
the affection and sympathy and compassion that we Americans have 

17 



for down-trodden Poland, those of us who have studied the relations 
of Poland and Lithuania must come to the conclusion that, if the 
Lithuanians are to be free, mentally, sociallj' and territorially, they 
must be independent both linguistically and sociologically of both 
the Poles and the White Russians. 

Notwithstanding modern ideas of toleration which the Catholic 
Lithuanians have learned to understand, notwithstanding, too, the 
new-born tolerance of the Protestant Lithuanians, there must always 
be taken into account religious differences interwoven so long with 
political hatred. Bigotry is not confined to Ulster. This cleavage 
is not due altogether to religious differences, but to traditional racial 
hatreds and the lack of toleration, somewhat mitigated by the war, 
which the Russian Orthodox Church has invariably shown. This 
instance is not due to the teaching of the religion, but to the fierce, 
almost Mohammedan, belief that the domination of Russian racial 
orthodoxy is a duty imposed on almost every devout adherent of that 
church which finds itself, since the murder of the Czar, practically 
without a head, and henceforth may be less bent on political power. 

Some time the Lithuanians may forget the past grievances 
which they have reasonably cherished against the Poles ; the latter 
are yet regarded in Lithuania as the descendants of the Cromwellians 
in Ulster are looked on by the "meer" Irish. Lithuania has nothing 
to gain commercially from Poland ; neither of these countries is in- 
dustrial ; they are both agricultural. A union between the three 
Scandinavian nations — ^Denmark, Sweden and Norway — would be 
reasonable, despite the old grudges, remnants of past history, which 
these three countries held against one another until recently, because 
the industrialism of Sweden, the agriculturalism of Denmark, and 
the fishing and ship-building interests of Norway make them fit 
economically into one another's interests. This is not so of Poland 
and Lithuania. If the Letts, or a part of the Letts, did not care to 
unite with the Lithuanians, this might be a source of weakness ; but 
a political or a commercial union with Poland could only destroy 
the national asjairations of Lithuania ; and, consequently, cause the 
Poles useless irritation without any corresponding advantages. Speak- 
ing of the possible voluntary union of the Letts and the Lithuanians 
in "The History of the Lithuanian Nation" (page 89). Mr. Jusaitis. 
who. by the way, is Master of Laws at the University of Friborg, 
Switzerland says : 

"Our languages even now are so closely akin to each other that 
they differ no more than various German dialects of the south and 
north. The only difference is that history has united the German 
dialects of north and south, and divided Lithuanian and Lettish. 
True, history has made us different nations; we could not be fully 

18 



united, for then each one would wish to have the upper hand, and 
we should mutually injure ourselves. But we enuld live together 
in two Slates, united on equal terms, each one attending to its internal 
iffairs, and in external affairs both acting together, each exerting on 
the other a useful national inlluence. In our economic affairs we 
would agree. We occupy contiguous territory, the Letts holding the 
seacoast. In a union witli the Letts we would reap the benefit of 
the sea trade, and their seaports would have a largei' hinterland. If 
both nations were independent of foreigners and united more closely, 
mutual cultural influence would purify and strengthen any Lithuanian- 
Lettish spirit and also the language of both. The national traditions 
forgotten by the one or the other would revive by mutual intluence. 
W'c are the only two sisters-nations in the world, and neither one 
is populous." 

In Europe, we who were nearer to the countries that wotdd 
be affected by the policy of self-determinism, were sometimes alarmed 
by the bitterness and hatred which the smaller States — especially 
the Balkans — manifested toward one another. This seemed to be, 
after the downfall of Germany had made freedom possible, a grave 
obstacle in the way of a just reconstruction. We sometimes felt that 
a certain number of the representatives of the Lithuanians, and of 
the Letts, of the Ukrainians, and the White Russians, disagreeing 
as they did among themselves, were too bitter in their attacks on 
Poland. This always led at least to verbal reprisals, and when any 
self-styled advocate of Lithuanian freedom proposes to unite all these 
peoples in a war-like group against Poland, he aims a direct blow at 
that world-sympathy which is beginning to turn ardently in favor 
of the independence of one of the bravest and most consistently na- 
tional countries of the world. 

The assertion that because Lithuania ceased to be a State she 
should be returned to Poland is as foolish as that other assertion made 
in one or two American newspapers that Norway, having separated 
from Sweden by national desire, should be returned to Denmark. 
That Norwegians use the Danish language — or an approximately 
Danish language — is no argument at all. It is not only language 
that makes a nation one; and the idea of returning any country to 
another country, on historical grounds, is as corrupt as most of the 
methods that obtained in the criminal Congress of Vienna. The 
specious argument advanced by Russia at various times that to permit 
the freedom of one nation that has lost its statehood is to give inde- 
])endence to all kinds of small, and even infinitesimal groups, has 
Itecn advanced against allowing Lithuania to be independent. The 
lirst necessity for the independence of a nation is that people should 
desire that independence. Historical precedents have nothing whatever 

U 



to do with it ; and the .mere fact that a country is united in the use 
of one language is not enoiigh. To make an absurd comparison, if 
this were true New Mexico might claim national right simply because, 
through the indifference or ignorance of the proper authorities, Span- 
ish has been permitted to remain her dominant language. 

The Will to be Free 

While language is a vital factor in national life, it is riot the 
one factor. There must be much more — there must be a national 
consciousness expressed by the will of the majority. If the Poles who 
governed Lithuania had adopted the Lithuanian language, but main- 
tained Polish ideas of domination — had, in fact, merely adopted 
a new language to aid in conquest — there would not have been a 
valid reason for declaring Lithuania Polish. It was easier for Russia 
to forbid the use of the native language in Lithuania, in 1864, than 
to force its subjects to learn Lithuanian. 

The Poles have a right to independence, not merely because 
of the possession of a common tongue, but rather because Polish 
nationality, Polish literature, the Polish temperament, is nothing un- 
der heaven but Polish ! A Pole must be a Pole or die — be at least 
in spirit, a martyr. The same thing may be said of Denmark, of 
Ireland, of Holland, of our own country. 

The Irish who desire Home Rule, or self-determinism, are not — 
those who speak English — the less entitled to their freedom that 
those who speak Gaelic. As the Danes and the Dutch, who speak 
the tongue of small nations, the Irish, if strictly Gaelic-speaking, 
would be obliged to learn English, in order to progress economically. 
The Danes and the Dutch are bi-lingual or cri-lingual for the reason 
that the big nations will not take the trouble to learn their tongues. 
But the Lithuanians do not demand that the Letts, if they choose 
voluntarily to unit with the probable new State of Lithuania, shall 
modify their dialect; a new impetus to literature would soon weld the 
two speeches — not so far apart — into one. 

To develop herself, Lithuania must be independent. There 
are writers who object to the union of Lettland and Lithuania be- 
cause, as I said, of the religious differences between the majority of 
Letts and the majority of the Lithuanians; but there is no greater 
solvent of religious intolerance than a union of economic interests. 
Lithuania and Lettland, once united and independent of alien con- 
trol, would form a magnificent agricultural State, with free communi- 
cations by great rivers and the sea to the outside world, in the midst 
of Europe, peaceful and progressive. 

To tie Lithuania and Lettland to either Russia or Poland 

20 



would bind tlicMi, like Andromeda, to a rock of tortuic and discord. 
Such a bondage is unthinkable in our modern times! Maurice F. 
I':gan. 



YOUR NAMES ASKED FOR LITHUANIAN FREEDOM 

Petition Circulating for Brave Nation that has Fought 
the Bolsheviki 

New Haven, Conn. Union. April 16, 1919. 

This is an eventful week in the lives of Lithuanians living in 
New Haven. Struggling for the freedom of their native land to 
which her well wishers have given the name of "The Baltic Republic," 
a petition is being circulated to which the names of 25,000 residents 
of the city have already been appended. During the week the com- 
mittees will call at factories, offices and private residences in the 
hope that the people will respond still further to the call for sign- 
atures. The time for obtaining names is now limited for it will 
'expire Sunday, the petition having to be in the hands of the Lithu- 
anian council in Washington by Monday next. 

The petition is addressed to the President and to the secretary 
of state and asks for the recognition of Lithuania as an independent 
state. Millions of copies are being circulated through the entire 
United State by the branches of the Lithuanian national council, 
which has over 800,000 members here. The petition bases the claim 
of the Lithuanians for self-determination and independence on their 
distinct ethnic entity, and on their present attempt to combat Rus- 
sian domination. 

England has promised aid and recognition to the new Baltic 
Republic, and Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland have accepted 
its diplomatic representatives. It stands today as the bulwark against 
Russian Bolshevism, with its soldiers actually at the present time 
co-belligerents — although unrecognized — of the American and allied 
forces against the Bolshevist armies. 

Lithuania at present includes approximately 33,430 square 
miles of territory and a population estimated at 6,000,000 people, 
governed by a provisional, republican form of government, dating 
from an independence declared from Germany and Russia on Dec. 
11, 1917. The new government administrates the army, the schools, 
the communications of government Its head is President A. Sme- 
tona, its prime minister A. Valdcmar, who is at present seeking 
recognition for his people at the peace conference at Paris. 

During the war, Lithuania served as a battlefield for Russians 
and Germans. The Lithuanians in the Russian army were variously 

21 



estimated 400,000 to 500,000 men. The majority of these were either 
killed or wounded in the Gaiician campaigns, at which time, to, the 
country was overrun and partly devastated. A central committee 
established in Berne administered the affairs of the country during 
this time. 

When the Brest-Litovsk treaty was signed the Lithuanian 
provisional government returned to Vilna, the capital, and protested 
against the terms of the treaty whereby Germany had gained a free 
hand in dealing with Lithuania. From that time, too, their light 
with the Bolshevists date, a fight which they have continued actively 
every since. 



HOPES OF FREEDOM BY LITHUANIANS 

Christian Scienoe Monitor, May 5, 1919. 

LONDON, England. — Dr. John Sziupas, who came to London 
recently to await the arrival of other delegates from Lithuania, made 
the following statement regarding his mission : 

"I am here to urge the right of Lithuania to self-determination, a 
right that is to be given to all enslaved and annexed countries by 
the Peace Conference now sitting in Paris. My colleagues have 
already made representations there and are to join me here soon, 
when we hope to interest the English in our country. 

We have been agitating and working for the independence 
of our country for many years. It has been urged that we should 
be too small a country to stand our ground if separated from Poland 
and Russia. Yet there are nearly 6,000,000 people of Lithuanian 
birth, with an area of 47,000 spare miles, and on these facts alone we 
can base a more reasonable claim to independence than Bulgaria, 
Serbia, Denmark, and other small states. 

"Lithuania Minor has borne the German yoke since 1422, and 
Lithuania Major was annexed by Russia in 1795. Both these coun- 
tries have lost all claim to Lithuania by reason of their inhuman 
treatment. Learning has been suppressed because no Lithuanian 
was allowed to hold office in his own country. This drove the intelli- 
gent men and women to seek occupation in other lands, and in 
Russia alone we have targe numbers of Lithuanians at the heads of 
universities and other public institutions. 

"This is not by any means Lithuania's first attempt to gain 
her freedom. In 1830, 1863, and 1905 there were 'rebellions' which 
were subdued by the military forces of Tzardom. 

"During the war Lithuania has suffered severely. Seven times 
have alien troops crossed and recrossed the land, laying it waste, 



while the inhabitants have been deported. At a congress at Kiev, 
in 1917, the envoys of 11 races passed resolutions to the effect that 
the wounds of Lithuania could only be healed by recognition of 
Lithuania's rights as a nation and the recognition of its right to 
separate itself from Russia and Prussia. 

"The Lithuanians are first-class fighters," Dr. Szlupas added, 
"and if given independence would prevent the march of Germany 
eastward and the encroachment of Bolshevist Russia westward." 



BOLSHEVIK! ARE DEFEATED AGAIN BY LITHUANIANS 
Advance Made Along a 260 Mile Line; Join Poles 

Chicago. 111. Tribune, Map 6, 19l'J. 

BERNE, May 4. — (French Wireless Service.) Lithuanian 
troops are advancing along a front of 2(iO miles from Courland to the 
region of Grodno and are approaching Vilna, according to a report 
received by the Lithuanian press bureau from Kovno. Lithuanian 
advance guards have occupied Seikai and Vievial, twenty-four miles 
from Vilna, and the bridgehead of Cieskis, on the river Vilia. 

Protest by Lithuanians 

New York, May 5. — The following cablegram was received 
today by the Lithuanian peace delegation in Paris : 

"The Poles attempted to capture Vilna but failed and the city 
is still held by the bolsheviki The Poles have taken Grodno. The 
Lithuanian government protested to the peace conference against 
the Polish invasion. The council of the five great powers, as a 
consequence, has directed the Poles and Lithuanians to cease hosti- 
lities, declaring that military occupation would not decide territorial 
questions. A Baltic states commission was created by the peace 
conference which will investigate and settle all Lithuanian questions." 



LITHUANIAN INDEPENDENCE 
I'rovidcnce R. I. Tribune, April 25, 1919. 

American Lithuanians are as keenly interested in the Paris 
peace conference as are many other nationalities represented in the 
LTnited States who are looking to that conference to give back to the 
pc(j|)le the freedom and independence unjustly taken from them in 
the ])ast by the use of remorseless and tryannous might. 

The Lithuanians in America have shown themselves a sturdy 
and intelligent race, industrious and ever ready to light hard for 

23 



what they conceive to be their rights. The peace conference must 
reckon with the claim of such a people or else there will be trouble 
in maintaining any new territorial lines that do not make such an 
allowance. 

All over the world this is the day of the little nation and of 
self-determination. There was never a more self-determined nation 
than Lithuania, and she is not so little, either. A country with an 
area of nearly 50.000 square miles and with a population of over six 
millions — a million more than either Ireland or Australia — has claims 
which cannot be disregarded. And every day they become more 
audible and more insistent. Left largely to her own resources, 
Lithuania is bravely fighting not merely for her own rights and 
liberties but for those of civilization, for she is opposing herself to 
Bolshevism after having fought resolutely and successfully against 
Prussianism. Surely such a nation deserves the sympathy and sup- 
port of other democratic countries in her efforts for autonomy and 
claims to recognition by the United States as well as all the other 
members of the league of nations. 

The Lithuanians, whose country has on its borders East 
Prussia, Poland and Russia, are neither Slavs nor Teutons. They are 
a separate race with a noble history, which has been largely a long 
struggle against oppression and obliteration by invading Poles, Teu- 
tons and Russians. But they have never lost their ethnographic 
identity as a branch of the Indo-European family, with a rich and 
copious language based on Sanskrit, to which, it may be said, Lith- 
uanian is the modern key; as well as folk tales and songs and noble 
traditions, if not a literature — for the attempted suppression of the 
Lithuanian language by Teuton and Slav oppressors prevented its 
use in the printed page for a long period. In the new republican 
administration there is perfect religious liberty. 



LITHUANIANS ASK ALLIES FOR RECOGNITION 

Milwaukee, Wis. Jonriial. May 10. Idl'.i. 

Paris — An appeal for recognition of the Lithuanian govern- 
ment by the United States and her allies, and for arms, ammunition 
and supplies for Lithuanian troops to complete the work of clearing 
the Bolsheviki out of Lithuania, is contained in a letter addressed 
to Secretary of State Lansing by the Lithuanian commission to the 
peace conference. The question of what the Lithuanian boundaries 
shall be can be settled at a later date, the commissioners state : all 
that Lithuania asks for now is recognition of her independence. 

"To delay recognition until the political status of Russia is 

24 



solved and a comnit>n policy determined upon by the conference, 
would support the reign of anarchy and disorder in Lithuania," says 
the letter. 

"So long as the present political- and economic conditions arc 
permitted to exist in Lithuania, Germany will continue to benefit 
by those conditions, and the Russian Bolshcviki will continue to be 
encouraged. 

"The Germans still occupy the western part of Lithuania. 
They export therefrom, food and various other agricultural products. 
The Germans invariably set their own prices, for which they usually 
pay in Ober Ost German money. Sometimes they pay nothing, 
promising to export goods from Germany to balance the import. 

"It is also impossible to keep the Russian ruble from circulating 
in Lithuania. 

"\\'ith recognition of our national state by the peace confer- 
ence we would control our fiduciary affairs and discredit this ficti- 
tious German and Russian paper currency and refuse to legalize its 
use, and effectively cripple German and Bolshevik propaganda which 
is conducted solely by means of this spurious specie." 



LITHUANIA ASKS AID IN KOSCIUSZKO'S NAME 
New York Herald, May 11, 1919. 

Kosciuszko was the first Lithuanian to conic to America and 
advertise his country. He did it in an extremelj^ practical fashion, 
by rolling up his sleeves and helping the American colonists in their 
plucky and historic scrap with George III. He was interested in 
the war for the independence of America because he had learned in 
his own country what misery and hardship an oppressed nation 
can suffer. Lithuania had long been the battle ground of nations, 
and under Germany, Poland and finally Russia had suffered intole- 
rably. Kosciuszko, then, was a logical defender of the rights of 
small and weak peoples, and this championship of the American 
cause was the first tie that bound the interests of Americans and 
Lithuanians. 

Since his day, however, immigration from TJthuania into 
America has been steady and consistent, and the tie has ever been 
growing stronger. Now Lithuania asks for help of the same America 
that Kosciuszko aided 1777; she wants to be a free and independent 
nation, to take up her national life where she left off so many yean, 
ago. and to establish herself once more as a national entity in recon- 
structed Europe. 



LITHUANIA ASKS CONFERENCE TO SETTLE DISPUTE 

Also Asks Arms, Munitions and Supplies for Her Troops 
Would Whip Bolshevists 

■rjiiTrufi' 

Believes They Canno^ Survive Signal Defeat in Battle 

Albany. N. Y. Argus. May 11. 1919. 

Paris, May 10. — An appeal for recognition of, the Lithuanian 
government by the United States and. her i^llies, /and ^io^, arms, am- 
munition and supplies for Lithuanian troops to complete the work 
of clearing the Bolsheviki out of Lithuania, is contained in a letter 
addressed to Secretary of State Lansing by the Lithuanian commis- 
sion to the peace conference. The question of what the Lithuanian 
boundaries shall be can be settled at a later date, the commissioners 
state; all that Lithuania asks for now is recognition of -her inde- 
pendence by the great powers. 

"To delay the question of recognition until the political status 
of Russia is solved and a common policy determined upon by the 
peace conference," says the letter, "would support the reign of anarchy 
and disorder in Lithuania, and it will interfere with and discourage 
the organization of order." 

"There are various small nationalities who have separated 
themselves from what .was formerly the Russian empire and who 
have by their strength and power shown to the world that they 
deserve to be independent. To delay the recognition of their inde- 
pendence and not to give them the assistance they need which is 
asked for by them, especially when this help will assist the Allies 
to establish order in Europe, would be a grave error. Moreover, 
rh" development and organization of these new states will be the 
foundation upon which the Russian problem can be solved, The 
next step in the life of these small states w'ill undoubtedly be the 
formation of alliances of one form ;0r another, which they will have 
a perfect right to do, acting in accordance with the rules that will 
govern the league of nations. 

"So long as the present ])olitical and economical conditions 
are permitted to exist in Lithuania, Germany will continue to beneiit 
by those conditions, and the Russian Bolsheviki will continue to be 
encouraged in their ambition. ■,^,,',.i: vbi. ciH 

"The Germans still occupy the western. ,parlt,, of, Lithuania. 
They export therefrom lumber, food and various other agricultural 
products. The Germans invariably set their own prices, for which 
they usually pay in Ober Ost German money. Sometimes they pay 
nothing, promising to export goods from Germany to balance the 
import. 

2S 



Unable to Press Her Victories 

"Since it is impossible to keep track of these transactions, 
Lithuania not having been recognized by the United States or the 
Entente as an independent state, and tKjt having any control what- 
soever over its borders, Germany takes complete advantage of this 
situation. 

"For the same reason it is impossible to keep the Russian ruble 
from circulating in Lithuania. It would be of great political advant- 
age, nt>t only to Lithuania, but to other interested powers as well, 
if the Russian ruble could be stopped or withdrawn from circulation, 
because this means, by which the Bolsheviki are enabled to support 
their prc>paganda in Lithuania, could be effectively eliminated. 

"With recognition of our national state by the peace confer- 
ence we could control our fiduciary affairs and discredit this fictitious 
German and Russian paper currency and refuse to legalize its use, 
and effectively cripple Geryian and Bolshevik propaganda, which is 
conducted solely by means of this spurious specie. 

"Lithuania believes that the Bolsheviki serious defeats but 
because of lack of war supplies Lithuania has been unable to press 
her victories to a final conclusion which could possibly result in the 
total route of the Bolsheviki. 

"We expressly desire to emphasize that order prevails in that 
part of Lithuania which Lithuanians have freed from the Bolsheviki. 
We specifically ask of the United States and their Allies, now, arms, 
ammunition and supplies for Lithuanian troops to complete the 
work so well begun of clearing the nest of Bolsheviki in Lithuania. 
We do not stipulate the aid of Allied troops, though we should be 
glad to have such aid. W^e ask only to have our own troops equipped 
for this task and thus help serve the ."Mlics' cause. Can the Allies 
fail to recognize the independence of Lithuania and lend support, 
by this means securing to themselves so great and desirable service 
and avoiding the necessity of sending into Russia an Allied army?" 



FOLK SONGS OF LITHUANIANS 

They Express in Poetry and Music the Simple Life of the 
People of That Country 

Evening Olobe, Xeiv York City, May S. 1919. 

America, the only nation which has no folksong, has once 
more brought to the attention of the world a new musical library, 
has found in the intensely national folksong of Lithuania something 
of rare interest and charm. The political oppression which Lithuania 

J7 



has suffered and the isolation of its people have made a deep impress 
on its music. Lithuania is now asking for complete independence. 

The Lithuanian folksong resembles the Italian folksong in that 
it express in poetry and music the simple life of the people. But 
here the likeness ends. The "Dainos" of Lithuania are symbolical 
poems, in which the moon, the sun, the planets, and the stars are 
given the quality of mortal beings, swayed by mortal passions. The 
whole mythological scheme of the universe is set forth in this folklore 
of Lithuania. Melodically the songs are most interesting and reflect 
the isolated character of the people in their color. 

The old "Burtinikas" (poets) were too diffident to speak about 
men and women, and they used only symbolic terms. Thus, the 
moon is the male, the sun his bride, and the stars are their daughters, 
and so on. In the same language the planets are the sons and the 
earth is the mother of them all. 

This poetry pervades the national life, songs, and proverbs 
entering into the business life of the Litiiuanian and into the simple 
betrothal of the young people. The Lithuanian guitar, or "kankles," 
is generally carved or painted with the "stemma" of the house, and 
provides accompaniment for the folk-songs. The ordinary notation 
of music is well understood by most of the modern Lithuanians, but 
a good deal of language and music is taught orally by the old people. 
In the manner of the old Greek rhapsodies the poet recites or sings 
a verse which the audience immediately repeats after him. 

Recitals of Lithuanian music are to be given in New York 
and other large American cities. 



LITHUANIA GIVEN MEMEL. BALTIC PORT, BY TREATY 

TERMS 

New Republic Made an Important Baltic Power, 
Is Seeking Recognition 

(By the Associated Press.) 
Eagle, Brooklyn. N. Y., May 11, 1919. 

Paris. May 10. — The Lithuanian delegation to the Peace Con- 
ference has asked President Wilson for a hearing concerning the 
status of the new republic and its desire for recognition. 

Dr. Ytchas, Lithuanian Minister of Finance and head of the 
delegation, told the correspondent today that the peace treaty pre- 
sented to Germany had the effect of giving to Lithuania the great 
Baltic port of Memel, thus making the republic one of the important 
Baltic powers. 

28 

/ 



The old East Prussian boundary started above Mcmel, includ- 
ing the city within Prussia, whereas the peace treaty starts the 
boundary below Memel, thus excluding the city from Prussia and 
including it in Lithuania. While gratified at the result, the delegation 
holds that the treaty is unwarranted in internationalizing the Nicmen 
River, which is wholly within Lithuania. 



LOGICAL RESULTS OF BOLSHEVISM 

Kew York Herald, May 10, 1919. 

Vilna is in extreme destitution and hunger after four months 
of occupancy by the Bolsheviki, from wlmni the Poles have rescued 
it but who are again attacking in force from a front only five miles 
away. Our Warsaw correspondent, ^Ir. Cameron RLickenzie, has 
just made a perilous trip to the ancient home of the Jagiello dynasty, 
under which Poland and Lithuania were united for two hundred 
years. In his special cable despatch published yesterday he describes 
the city as poisoned and diseased, stricken by the blight of Bolshevism. 

Since January 5, when the Germans evacuated the city and 
turned it over to the Bolsheviki, Vilna has been systematically de- 
prived of food, her industries have been ruined and her population 
of 150,000 persons is idle and starving. When the Bolsheviki were 
lorced to evacuate the place they made a house to house search and 
took away from poor and rich alike every particle of food. Previously 
they had seized and sent back to Russia all the stock of the smaller 
tradesmen and had declared all the important business enterprise 
the property of the community. 

Starv-ation and idleness are the logical results of Bolshevism, 
entirely apart from the rule of rapine and murder. For when one 
is not assured of receiving the fruits of his labor he will not work, 
and when he receives from the state only a pittance doled out to the 
working men all individual enterprise is crushed and a blow dealt 
to efficiency that inevitably tends to the decay of trade in general 
and to the improvement of the individual. First comes decline in 
production, then stagnation of business, want and finally starvation. 
All the efforts of the Bolshevist commissaries cannot annul the effects 
of what Lloyd George recently called the "relentless pressure of 
economic facts." 

Vilna in all the eight hundred years of its history never suffered 
as she is suffering today. Rome was cruel and barbarous and assassi- 
nations were frequent under the rule of the despotic Caesars, but 
Rome knew better than to kill the incentive to production, so she 
prospered in spite of her crimes. But the Bolsheviki have effected 

2» 



in a few months greater destruction than the despotism of Rome 
accomplished in centuries. 



THE FURTHEST OUTPOST 

By Elias Tobenkin 

Special Correspondent of The Tribune 

Tribune, New York City, May 13, 1919. 

Kovno (By mail). — The special commission of the American 
Relief Administration which came here to investigate the food 
situation in Lithuania concluded its work with a visit to the Lith- 
uanian-Bolshevist front, twenty-two miles east of Kovno. The com- 
mission consists of Major Ross and Captain Hollister, U. S. A., and 
a Red Cross representative, and was sent out from Warsaw by 
Colonel Grove, the head of the Poland Relief Mission. The Tribune 
correspondent accompanied the mission. 

After half an hour's ride the party found itself in a village 
containing ISO houses, and was received by the Lithuanian com- 
manding officer, who was formerly a captain in the Russian army. 
The commander explained good-naturedly that the land the American 
commission was standing on was "the furthest outpost of civilization" 
and that across a few kilometres was No Man's Land, where the 
Bolshevists are in control. He also explained that the section of 
front under his control was the most important, as the Bolsheviks 
are anxious to enter Kovno, where a direct railroad line runs into 
East Prussia, and the Russian Bolshevists are anxious to connect 
it with the Konigsberg Spartacists. The Bolshevists likewise expect 
help from the Spartacists, who are believed to be thick in the German 
army occupying Kovno and Lithuania. 

The Bolshevist front is primitive and violates every tradition 
of the war front. They have no barbed wire entanglements and no 
trenches. Two-thirds of the soldiers have uniforms, and only a few 
have had more than two month's military training. The only thing 
that marks these peasant boys in home spun as soldiers is their 
military hats with a yellow band, which every one of them wears 
to justify his carrying a gun. The commander then explained that 
warfare with the Bolshevists was largely of a guerilla nature and in 
that special section was largely defensive on the part of the Lith- 
uanians. He said that the Lithuanian army was only two months 
old, that its numbers all told are not over ten thousand men, and it 
is handicapped by the lack of ammunition and clothing. Neverthe- 
less, he felt confident of victory over the Bolsheviki because of the 
zeal with which the peasant boys were fighting, and they had the 

30 



whole-hearted support of the Lithuanian nation, which it gives its 
army. The commander then said : 

Fighting Hungry Wolves 

"Lithuania is lighting the Bolshcviki army in the same manner 
in which it would hght a Hock of hungry wolves or a forest fne. 
The peasant boys hght for their existence and the survival of their 
homes and possessions, which they have saved up in the course of 
generations, and even centuries. Not even 10 per cent, of the 
Bolshevist troops who are fighting us have any conception of the 
idealism which men of type of Lenine see in Bolshevism. To the 
Soviet army hereabouts Bolshevism as a practical proposition means 
plunder and robber}^. When the Soviet troops occupy a Lithuanian 
village they strip the population by taking the bread, produce, cattle, 
clothing, wagons and implements and sending them back to the 
devasted interior of Russia. We have hundreds of instances where 
the Bolshevist troops, on occupying Lithuanian territory, left but 
a single shirt to each person and requisitioned the rest. Our war 
here against Bolshevism is simply a struggle for survival — hence 
the desperate bravery with which our boys fight despite the cold and 
handicaps 

"The peasant population of Lithuania has made this fight 
against Soviet Russia a famil)' affair. Daily from ten to fifteen 
peasants drive up in their carts to visit their soldier boys and to bring 
them food, shirts or freshly knitted woolen gloves and socks." 

He then stated that, bad as was the condition of the Lithuanian 
troops, the Bolshevist troops were even in a worse plight, and that 
recently several companies of starved Bolshevist soldiers surrendered, 
and when questioned most of them wept bitterly and said that they 
entered the Bolshevist army because it was a last refuge from starva- 
tion and death. As soldiers they could at least make provision for 
themselves by robbing and pillaging. 



LITHUANIA WANTS FULL INDEPENDENCE 
Does not Wish to Form Part of Other Nations 



FOUGHT BOLSHEVIKI HARD 

United With Poland and Ukraine Would Bar Advance of Red Terror. 

(By Thomas B. Preston.) 

A'eics, Charleston. 8. 0., May i, 1919. 

When the disposition of the provinces that have separated 
from Russia comes to be considered, whether before or after the 

31 



signing of the treaty of peace, Lithuania will demand early con- 
sideration. Like her northern neighbor, Esthonia, Lithuania has been 
carrying on a difficult warfare against the Bolsheviki on her eastern 
border, after having driven them back from the coast of the Baltic 
sea to Mitau and the Dvina river. Treacherous German troops not 
long ago attempted a diversion in their rear by seizing the port of 
Libau, but British warships were on the watch and landed men and 
the situation was restored. 

Lithuania; has aspirations for complete independence. She 
does not want to form part of Germany, Russia or Poland. She had 
a racial affinity with the Borussi in East Prussia, who were practically 
exterminated by the Teutonic knights and from whom the Prussians 
stole their very name. The Lithuanians still call East Prussia "Lith- 
uania Minor." Regarding Russia, for centuries their cruel oppressor, 
they have no feeling of kinship and have no racial affinity. Neither 
do they wish to join Poland now, although when they did voluntarily 
unite with Poland both nationalities reached their highest prosperity, 
justifying the saying that "union makes strength," the motto that 
two different races in Western Europe, the Finnish and the Walloons, 
adopted when they established the Government of Belgium. 

Prey of Foreign Landlords 

Religious differences as well as racial probably play a part 
in this political antagonism between the Letts, Lithuanians and 
Poles, for many of the former are Lutherans and the latter largely 
Catholic. The land question has something to do with it also, for 
there were large estates held by Poles in the interior, while nearer 
the coast German barons owned practically all the country and 
eagerly welcomed the Kaiser's armies when they invaded Russia. 
The Lithuanians, who are an agricultural people, until recent years 
were not allowed exclusive possession of the land on which they 
lived. No one could call his farm his own. 

Both the Lithuanians and the kindred Letts were serfs to 
foreign nobles, who charged them so much for living in the land 
where they were born that all the proceeds of their labor beyond a 
miserable subsistence went to support in luxury those who did 
nothing but simply owned the soil. Even the Russians saw that such 
a system of tenant farming — which is increasing rapidly, by the 
way, in this country — was economically injurious to the State, and 
tried to prevent the land owners from evicting their tenants and 
raising their rents. Finally, in 1861 the Emperor Alexander II is- 
sued his emancipation decree abolishing serfdom. 

Peasants were freed from enforced labor and given a share 
of their former holdings ; the State recompensed the landlords and 

32 



the tenant farmers had to redeem the amount in partial paynu-nls 
extended over a period of years. But, as in Germany, the share 
awarded to tiie peasants was so small that the landlords were not 
greatly disturbed in their predominance and made a good income 
from their estates by the help of agricultural laborers. Unjust 
distribution of land, like that in France before the revolution of 1789, 
was the cause of much of the Bolshevism in Russia today. 

Russia Punished Poles 

After the insurrection in Poland, in 1863, the Russian Gov- 
ernment, to punish the Poles, gave to the Lithuanian peasants the 
land of the Polish proprietors on much easier terms even than those 
by which landlords in Russia were expropriated. The allotments 
were however, distributed imequallj', also the redemption taxes, so 
that some peasants actually lost land their ancestors had acquired. 
The Letts fared even worse, for the insignificant minority of German 
landlords — less than 5 per cent. — were allowed the monopoly of the 
sale of whiskey and beer to further debauch and impoverish the 
population. 

Barrier Against Bolsheviki 

While the Bolsheviki are now being weakened in the west it 
is time to establish a strong barrier against their threatened advance 
into Central Europe. Three countries cover the wide gate to the 
west between the Baltic and the Black sea — Lithuania, Poland and 
the Ukraine. 

(Copyright, 1919, by New York Herald Company.) 



WILSON ASKED TO SAVE LITHUANIA'S FREEDOM. 

Russia and Poland Charged With Plotting to Take Control 

of the Country. 

Tribune, Xvw York City, June t.'>, I'JUK 

PARIS, June 14 (By The Associated Press). — The Lithu- 
anian delegation in Paris has written a letter to President Wilson 
asking that he give it a hearing on the intrigues of Poland and 
Russia against Lithuania. 

The letter asserts that Lithuania does not wish to be rein- 
corporated in Russia and does not desire to re-establish the obsolete 
union with Poland. It continues: 

"While the regenerate world aspires to freedom, Poland and 

33 



Russia are seeking to take possession of Lithuania under the guise 
of defending her against the Bolsheviki and Germans." 

The letter adds that the hearing will assist America in 
securing the triumph of right in Eastern Europe. 



POURING MUSIC OVER A CANVAS 

A Critic Writes an Appreciation of the Lithuanian Painter M. K. 

Tschourlionis, Who Essays Marriage of Two Arts 

Evening Sun, New York City, May 8, 1919. 

That popular style of criticism which expresses music in 
terms of art, art in terms of literature or literature again in terms of 
music, is the present day's most pathetic fallacy. For it all resolves 
itself into words expressed in words and then more words. It now 
remains for a well known Lithuanian painter truly to picture music ; 
to pour upon glowing canvases the sensous and rhapsodic moods 
of music. 

The experiment is not new ; neither is it converse. The 
entente between tempo and tempera, pitch and paint has always been 
industriously cordial. Watts made a "Hope" (forlon) which hangs 
over every second London heart and which translates just about 
such musical sentiments as emanated from that piano teacher to 
royalty. Sir Paolo Tosti. And, on the other hand, it is only recently 
that two separate musical compositions have been introduced into 
New York, one of them by the Russian Rachmaninoff, which seek 
to do with the orchestra what the brush has done with that familiar 
favorite with mysoginists, "The Isle of the Dead." Or remember 
back to the stir created when a musical society in Washington played 
.Scriabin in a darkened room, with a melting succession of weirdly 
colored lights playing upon a screen before the auditors. Eyes and 
ears feasted, glutted, drugged at the same instant. It was a recogni- 
tion, anyhow, of that rich relationship between the optical and aural 
senses. But it was not art. 

Visualizes Musical Impressions 

The Lithuanian painter, M. K. Tschourlionis (or Curlionis, as 
it is in his own picturesque language) succeeds where other have 
failed. He succeeds in conveying the nebulousiiess unlimited in 
music, the mindful ecstasy of its imaginings ; yet he has made art 
of it, noble, prepossessed art, sternly beautiful. Kinetic art, of course, 
and madly swift to convey titanic impressions ; but such is the mod- 
ern school, and Paris knows Tschourlionis as one of the foremost 
moderns. 

Enormous imagery, employing whole worlds and heavens of 

34 



a scope to lircak the jrlassy bounds of even Dante's conception of 
the universe, and piled with thousands of picturesque and tellinp de- 
tails — these arc his means, but only the means, to the end that a 
mood of conscious vastness and cieativeness shall consume him 
who sees as surely as it docs him who lays his ear to listen to the 
winds of a world struggling for freedom from the shell of some 
famous symphony. 

There are some "Preludes" of his, for example, which were 
away from all that legcndry and earthly depiction that characterize 
his now famous trypitch of "Pasaka." They are typical of him, 
none the less, and of his Herculean throes to break beyond the limits 
of formal design and to transcend all human idea. One of these has 
a looming black peak for its foreground, bright stairs going crazily 
up across the back. A Sphinx, behind patches of white cloud, broods 
upon the summit of the mount, dark but gleaming eagle's wings 
erect upon her back. Verdure, strange, fantastic, climbs the black 
rock to meet her. 

Yet Another "Prelude" 

Another "Prelude" is but a glorious huddling of minarets and 
towers, myriad in number, in variety. Those that are in sunlight 
shine as Camolot might have shone, those that are in darkness dip 
to a gloom hellish bej'ond description. The proportions of the piece 
are stupendous — an effect of distances intensified by the dwindling 
mists. 

These are his steadfast trick, these mists. But what sinuous, 
clambering mists the}' are ! Even when the sunlight cleavers them 
they will writhe into new shapes, new phantoms, take on new and 
softer colors. And in one musical series which Tschourlionis has 
made — the picturization of a whole sonata, entitled "The Chaos" — 
they are the integral force of the entire work. 

In this "Chaos" sonata, recently reproduced for the profit of 
Lithuanian prisoners (a fit reminder of what this small people suffer- 
ed in the lock of larger nations) the subjects are outrightly labelled 
in the nomencalture of music. "Allegro" says one of them, "Andante" 
another. Here perhaps are the two most daring examples of Tschour- 
lionis's adventure. The brilliant colors alas! it is impossible to 
reproduce. They run such a riot as the Grand Canyon runs at dawn, 
and to miss them is to miss most of the glow of their inspiration. 

The "Allegro," for example, swings an endless system of 
planets through jagged layers of flushed clouds, metal rimmed, trans- 
parents to disclose the golden pricking of stars without number. 
Over it all the sun is an orb of Mystic Dove in barely human form ; 
infinity stares through every crevice. 

35 



An Appreciation of "Andante" 

The "Andante" again employs the same cosmic figurings but 
in a deeper set of tones, less mad in their scattering. A huge world 
is tumbling here churning soberly down a limitless alley of serpetine 
winds. A thick, dark snake of night lies in a lazy diagonal across it, 
with longitudinal rods of light dividing it all with the precision of 
day upon day. And across the face of everything, mists afire, mists 
in mourning, mists and ever more mists. 

On a level rigorously even runs a straight blue bar through 
the upper portion of each number of this pictured "sonata." It is 
narrow, inconspicuous, so crusted with stars as to be almost lost in 
the larger swirl of things. Yet it is precisely the same in each of 
of them. Obviously it is the central idea of the whole work; it be- 
longs there as genuinely as every great musical composition, no mat- 
ter how often divided into movements must have its central and 
continuous purpose. It is but a further proof of the artists sincerity 
in grasping at the innermost of music and fusing it into permanence. 

He has done it, this Lithuanian. He has coupled with a paint 
brush two great vehicles of genius. He has succeeded where others, 
hemmed by art older formalism, failed or despaired. He is not the 
only Lithuanian, to be sure, who has come into good repute in arts 
and letters during the past decade, for, just prior to the upheaving 
arrival of the war, that doughty little people had undergone a great 
intellectual renaissance. Now, doubtless, it will be resumed, especi- 
ally should Lithuania's dream of centuries come true and she be 
granted a national entity. Among other good things it will mean 
a national school of art. 

And what a school it will be, with such as Tschourlionis at 
its head ! What if it forges even newer paths of liaison between 
art and music. Then words will be unnecessary — and especially such 
words as these ! 

Gilbert W. Gabriel 



WANT POLAND TOLD TO WITHDRAW FORCE 

Mass Meeting Here Denounces the Invasion 

of Lithuania and the Ukraine 

DEPLORES ATTACKS ON JEWS 

Bolshevism was denounced and a plea made for the recognition 
of Esthonia, Lithuania, the Ukraine, and Lettland at a mass meeting 

36 



in Carnegie Hail yesterday afternoon. Tlu' liall was packed. There 
was just t>ne discordant note, and tliat was when a speaker now ami 
tlien mentioned Poland. Every mention of the Poles was the.fiignul 
for' a storm of hisses,, for, in the opinio.n of the Letts, Lithuanians, 
Esthonians and Ukrainians, the Poles have imperialistic ambitions 
and seek not only to incorporate in the new Polish Republic lands 
that are strictly Polish, but also territories that have a|ways been 
inhabited by people of Lithuanian and Ukrainian blood. 

Mark Eisner presided at the meeting and there were speeches 
by representatives of the four nationalities under whose auspices the 
gathering had assembled. Several resolutions were adopted, one of 
them referring to the invasion of Lithuania and Ukraine by the 
Poles, which was denounced as an aggression, and ias; "a violation 
of the war aims declared by President Wilson and the allied Govern- 
ments," and as an indefensible interference with the rights of the 
people concerned to determine their own future. 

A message, it was announced, would be immediat-elj' sent by 
cable to Versailles calling upon the allied Peace Commissioners 'to 
compel Poland to withdraw her forces from Lithuania and the Ukr- 
aine, and that all assistance be denied Poland in the event of that 
nation's failure to withdraw as ordered. The boundary disiputes, it 
will be further suggested, should be settled by an American or inter- 
allied commission. ;/. I. ti1i:::'uy:r. 

"In order" the resolution concluded, " to enable 'Lithuania, 
the Ukraine, Lettland, and Esthonia to rebuild their countries, to 
resist foreign invasions, including that of,;Bolshevism, andj to take 
their places as independent European States, we hereby request the 
Government of the United States and the Governments of the allied 
nations to recognize the complete independence ofi the Lithuanian, 
Ukrainian, Lettish, and Esthonian Rcpublics.i andi.tp .rjanderjithem 
moral and material assistance." r- ;•. •• '/ ■ 

m 

Denounces Attacks on Jews 

This resolution, denouncing the treatment of Jews in parts, ipf 
I^astern Europe, was also unanimously adopted : I 

We, American friends of the freedom of Liihuania, and 
Ukraine, and American citizens of Lithuanian and Ukrainian descent, 
in meeting assembled at Carnegie Hall in NeW; :Yiorki ; City, hereby 
unanimously resolves: - .li : 

That we disavow emphatically all sympathy or support for, the 
massacre and pillage of Jews; that we do not believe ^suqhi crud,ties 
have the support of any of the inhabitants of Lithuania or Ukraine, 
but that, on the contrary, it is the firm intention of the Lithuanian 
and Ukrainian republics to grajit Jews equal rights Qn4; Protections 

87 



with all other citizens; and wo respectfully petition the United 
States Government to take all necessary steps to prevent the con- 
tinuance or recurrence of such horrors wherever they occur. 



LITHUANIA'S POSITION. 

On Peace Treaty Given in Note to President Clemenceau 
of Peace Conference. 

Ansonia, Conn., Sentinel, June 9, 1919. 

The Lithuanian national council in New York has received 
the following cable from its Paris representative, giving an official 
summary of Lithuania's position on the peace treaty. 

"The Lithuanian delegation to the peace conference has ad- 
dressed a note to M. Clemenceau, president of the conference, as 
follows : 

"We have the honor to beg you to submit for consideration 
of the conference, the Lithuanian viewpoint on questions which in 
the preliminary peace with Germany concern Lithuania directly or 
indirectly. Sure of the final victory of right and justice for which 
the entente powers were fighting, the Lithuanian people display 
invincible tenacity in resisting the German plan which purposed 
annexation and enslavement for Lithuania. When the allied govern- 
ments adhered to the 14 points of President Wilson, and his subse- 
quent utterances as a basis for future peace, the Lithuanians experi- 
enced great relief, feeling that their rights were eternally assured. 
Unfortunately, the preliminaries of peace concerning Lithuania seem 
not to answer these principles and hopes entirely ! 

"The note then examines three points of complaint — allott- 
ment by the conference to eastern Prussia of that portion of Lithu- 
ania west of the Niemen, the internationalization of the Niemen- 
Grodno mouth, and the conditions of the existing German military 
occupati(m of Lithuania. The note, supporting the first complaint, 
quotes the third and fourth Wilson principles uttered February 11, 
1918, concerning the integrity of peoples and specifies that the right 
to a plebiscite allowed the Danes of Sleswig, and the Poles of Prussia, 
is denied Lithuanians. 

"On the left bank of the Niemen, we believe," says the note, 
"that the sole and simplest means of sparing the Lithuanian popula- 
tion of the territory in question unmerited humiliation, and of main- 
taining the principles proclaimed so solemnly, would be to recognize 
at least in principle, and even before the signature of peace with 
Germany, the independence of Lithuania. 

"Regarding the second complaint, the note declares that ncj 

38 



question nf tlu' iiUi-rnalioiKilizalinii oi tin- Xicnu'ii existed wliile 
I'riissia iiclil it, and while Russia possessed a legal government. In 
eontiast, the X'istiiia, traversing i)artly Cierman territoiy, is placed 
wholly uiiiler the Poles, and the Khiiu' is imt disposi'd of without 
consulting Holland. 

"Regarding the Liernian army in Lithuania, the note warns 
the conlerence that if in its present opinion a certain measure of 
co-operation by German troops is indispensible to repulsing the 
holsheviki, it would be useful to state precisely what the task of 
those troops should be. 

"The provisional government oi Lithuania," thef document 
concludes, "after an experience so dearly paid for, is of the opinion 
that it would be preferable to evacuate them completely." 

"Because of the facts stated above the Lithuanian delegation 
solicits the members of the peace conference to recognize the prin- 
ciple of independence for Lithuania, and to refuse the articles of the 
l)reliminary treaty relative to eastern Prussia, to the Nieman and 
lo Cierman occupation of Lithuania." 



THE JEWS OF LITHUANIA 
By Konrad Bercovici 

As early as 1380, when the Jews were burned on the auto-da-fe 
in Spain and tortured to death in Germany, Vytautas, king of Lith- 
uania, understood their value and attracted a considerable number 
of Jews to his country by ordering them religiuos freedom and security. 
He enacted laws punishing with death whomsoever attacked a Jew, 
injured or murdered him. Such magnanimity in those early days, 
when the rest of the world offered but little security and still less 
redress to the Jews, was not disregarded. Today Lithuania is seeking 
recognition from the world and the Jews are an intregal part of her. 

The percentage of Jews in Kovno is today 35 per cent., in 
Vilna 41 per cent, and Suvalka 54 per cent. The Jews constitute 17 
per cent, of the total population in Lithuania. It was through them 
that the Lithuanians transacted their business and they are to be 
found in every activity. In the timber and poultry trade they have 
been active for hundreds of years. 

In Vilna and Kovno are sonic of the most celebrated Tal- 
niudical schools around which the Yiddish poets have woven a 
thousand legends. The fact is that nowhere did Jews enjoy as much 
religicnis freedom as in Lithuania. 

The J ithuanian Jews are renowned as good Hebrews scholars 
and consider themselves superior because they studied in "Jeshibas" 

80 



ofi.old traditions. Of all the Progroms the Jews have suffered not 
oijp CQuldiibe traced 'to Lithuanian origin. Lithuania was a haven of 
spcujrity.- 1 It was, in Lithuania that Yiddish became a language in 
\Y}iifth,f [the .people, expressed themselves and it was there that it was 
first turned into literary value. As a matter of fact, fully two-thirds 
of,;tlie Yiddish literature, most of the publishing houses and most 
of .thj^fjYjiddish writers were born in Lithuania. Compared to Lith- 
uanian Jews, the Jews of all other nations are Hamorazim ignorants, 
ai)d the Litvakcs, as the Lithuania Jews call themselves, are inordi- 
nately proud of their birthplace. 

,i,.,ri :;There were , and there are many Jews active in the fight for 
l^itJj,u3.nian, independence. The Jews of Lithuania have always appre- 
ciated the libep^iL^irit nf the Lithuanians and they always maintained 
tlji^^l^hey. were Lithuanians and not Russian Jews. 

,(,;,,, X^e Yiddish papers of this country publish daily letters that 
r^^h,,J;lvej[ii^, ^roni;! the. ;,\ya,rring countries. The tales of murder and 
pe:j"secution that are novv taking place in "Independent Poland" under 
the eyes of the musicianly president, ^re so horrifying one shudders 
and clenches his fists reading the first words. These were progroms 
and inceptions of progroms almost everywhere. Men, women and 
children are murdered. ',d«>ily-; But we have not yet heard that the 
Jews in Lithuania suffered with other causes than were ordinary 
with the r.est of the Lithuanian population in this cruel war. The 
J^Ws''li\^irig-i'ri the' big' cities of Lithuania were so well organized 
th'^4iiH'ri£j't''nee3Jhalf. of the rdifef that we' have ' se'rit to other titieS. 

isdrni^it -the 'third Conference' of nationalists which Was held in 
LatisiSriii'e 'i'n June, 1916, the Lithuanian delegate proposed and carried 
thTdug'h 'reSblutioflrS giiai-ahteeirig 'tO'''isach individual his language, 
hrS'Teligferi and' politicaL and ' civil equality. Fi-'ee association and 
ti^aditicms wtere recognized as "rights." 

griiibgshiefre'-ai'e'-iiidications that the new Lithuanian republic will 
cdrttiriite' in the go6d traditions of their great King Vytautas, and 
that Vilna, Kovno, Grodno, and Suvalki will remain the great Tal- 
nliidi'es({'te'A'ter.<5 of Ith^ world. 

rri'ifli ji ...i.i.,iJ.; 



LITHUANIANS IN FOLK MUSIC EMPLOY 
MYTHOLOGICAL SCHEME. 

Sun,, Moon and Stars, for Purpose of Song, Are Given Quality of 
I'Hjfft 1, ¥^'-*^^ Beings — Poetry Pervades National Life. 
Gazette-Times. Pittsburg. Pa., May 19, 1919. 

^ii-.Io.'^i\meriea''hiife once more brought to the attention of the world 
a rtfe'^f-iftlksical 'libi'ary. '.'It' has found in the intensely national folk 

40 



songs of l.itluiaiiia. Sdiiu-tliiiiji i.i' rare ilitCrtst 'Mi^ rhiirtVi'. "''Tli'c 
political oppression which l.itlniania has suflercd ami the isolation 
of '.its people have made a deep inl press' oh'' WsmlifeJt. Lithudhii ' is 
now asking for complete independence. ' " ■'■" ' " '"'■ 

The Lithuanian folk-sung resemblei''tliie Italian fol^-song 'm 
that it expresses in poetry and music the simple life of' ttie'fltople. 
But here the likeness ends. The "Dainos" of Lithuama are 'syfri- 
bolical poems in which the moon, the sun, the planets and the stir's 
are given the quality of mortal beings, fe\^'aytd by tHortal" )f)ci's'sVin$. 
The whole mythological scheme of the universe is "Scli"forth in this 
folk-lore of Lithuania. Melodically the songs arc most interesting 
and reflect the isolated character of the peo^ple in their color. 

The old "burtinikas". (poets), were tOO,d^f6dent|to,|Spe?^< about 
men and women, and they used only symbolic terms. "J^JiiiSjj.liJ^e 
mo(m is the male, the sun his bride, and the stars arc their (d^iugliXt,ej'S, 
and so on. tn the same language the, planets ^re^j|he,,Pj9_rig|jaij]d,,tJ)ie 
earth is the mother of them all. , i ,.. ,, •/Uni;.' -il; 

This poetry pervades the national iii.e,: ^(jiipgs , aiTfJ-i p^OiVprl^ 
entering into the business life of the Lithuanian' and, jint;«?iithfi;si!iT;>ple 
betrothal of the young people. The Lithuanian guitar or "kaiikles" 
is generally carved or painted with the "stijmma" of the; house and 
provides accompaniment for the folk-^pngs.,,7"he.prdin3ry. notation 
of music is well understood by most of the modern Lithuanians, but 
a good deal of language and music is taught orally by the people. 
In the manner of the old Greek rhapsodies the poet .recites or sings 
a verse which the audience immediately repeats after him. 



NEW TRADE MARKET FOR AMERICANS IS OPEN 
IN LITHUANIA. 

Huge Quantities of Agricultural Implements, Steel, Coal and 
Machinery Are Needed; Cash Is Ready. 

Tribune, New York City, June 9, 1919. 

A new trade market, ready for business,, ,amj,.?^ble [to pay, 
awaits the exporters of the United States. ..!, :,„ .. ,,i > ,jr.)^. 

Lithuania, that little Baltic republic of 7,000,000 inhabitants 
whose blockade has just been lifted by the American War Trade 
Board, looks to this country for immediate shipments of raw mate- 
vials, machinery, seed — dozens of products with which her people 
may begin the work of rebuilding their country, ravaged by four 

41 



years of war, and preceding that, a century of Russian exploitation. 
An agricultural country, Lithuania needs farm implements and 
machinery. About 33,000 square miles of rich arable land now awaits 
American agricultural machinery to replace the old-fashioned peasant 
devices with which Lithuania has had to content herself for so long. 
Lithuania tried American machinery before the war just enough to 
know that she liked it and could afford to use it. She now wants to 
carry that experiment farther and develop her land according to 
American methods and with American machinery. For her fresh 
start in farming Lithuania also needs seed wheat and tares. 

Coal, Iron and Steel Needed. 

For manufacture, in which the Lithuanians expect to engage 
immediately, they ask America to send coal, iron, steel, cotton, 
machinery, chemicals, grain elevators, refrigeration plants, railway 
materials and supplies. There is plenty of labor in Lithuania, and 
the country is rich in clay, chalk, quartz, etc., for ceramic manu- 
facture ; raises abundant crops of flax and wool and is expert in live 
stock production. Machinery to manufacture pottery, woolen goods, 
including finished garments, and leather, are therefore in demand 
for immediate use. Cotton, both raw and manufactured, is wanted 
in exchange of flax and wool. 

Transportation facilities in Lithuania are extremely inadequate 
for the country's needs. What progress the little state had made 
in that direction before the war was completely stopped when 
hostilities broke out, and during the four years railway lines were 
demolished, vehicle roads were ruined, cars and their supplies were 
destroyed. 

Railroads Lack Equipment. 

New materials, cars, rolling stock must be imported to rebuild 
the railways and highways of the country. Coal and iron are not 
to be found at all in Lithuania, and America will find a market there 
for these materials. Steel rails, simple iron parts for wagons, coal 
in large quantities, all will play a large part in rebuilding Lithuania's 
transportation system. 

Lithuania not only needs all these imports and asks the United 
States to send them, but she has her purse open, ready to pay the 
bills. For although old Russia made every attempt to crush Lithu- 
ania's economic and financial organization, the little ccountry went 
busily on, and created 184 cooperative business organizations, all 
separate, lively entities, and having a combined capital of 9.000,000 
roubles. These organizations are the backbone of Lithuanian busi- 

42 



ncss to-day, and insuro a rnllu-r stable reconstruction plan for 
Lithuania. 

. American exports can be sent to Lithuania by way of the 
ports of Memel, Konigsberg and Libau, on the Baltic Sea, which are 
> asiiy accessible. — Cleveland Plain Dealer. 



LITHUANIANS ACCUSE POLES. 

Petition Washington to Stop Alleged Outrages Upon Nationals. 

Times, New York City, June 8, 1919. 

WASHINGTON, June 7.— The Lithuanian National Council 
presented a petition to the State Department today protesting against 
alleged barbarities on the part of Poland and asking the United 
States to give Lithuanians protection. 

"Lithuania," says the petition, "is being invaded with im- 
perialistic designs by the troops of her neighbor Poland. The in- 
vasion is characterized by most inhuman outrages. Executions, 
pillaging, destruction of property, and even massacres of populace en 
masse are perpetrated. 

"In one city, Vilna, about two thousand persons were put to 
death ; ten thousand others were made homeless or deported ; scores 
of prominent people, including wives of two members of the Cabinet, 
were carried away and are held as hostages; public buildings and 
residences of prominent Lithuanians were destroyed or sacked. 

"Jewish population of Lithuania has been wantonly massacred 
and in many instances put to such inhuman tortures and indignities 
in order to drive them from place to place, until for lack of the barest 
life necessities they fell easy victims to death. 

"The Polish Government is now massing its troops on the 
northern frontiers for a greater and stronger operation against 
Lithuania. To meet this new danger, Lithuanians are forced to 
withdraw their troops from the sorely pressed front against the 
Boisheviki. There is, therefore, a great danger of the entire Lithu- 
anian line collapsing against the Boisheviki." 

The petition goes on to urge, on behalf of the Executive Com- 
mittee of the Lithuanian National Council in America, that the Unitcil 
States Government direct Poland to stop her invasion of Lithuania. 
It also recommends the recognition of the present Government of 
Lithuania as tending to "eliminate most of the present diflRculties of 
the Polish aggressions." 

43 



AWFUL CRUELTIES INFLICTED BY POLES ON JEWS 

IN VILNA. 

1,500 Killed, 2,000 to 5,000 Deported, Is Charge Made to Lithuanian 
Commission in Paris. 

Brooklyn Eagle, June 9, 1919. 

Paris, Friday, June . 6^^£vidence of , cruelties, practiced upon 
the Jews in Vilna by Polisn troops as seen by witnesses has been 
collected by-'Dr..RachniilevitZ and .Sent to the Premier of, Lithuania 
and transmitted by him to the Lithuanian Commission to the Peace 
Conference. 

ii:iii, 'J The' document says that the same day the Poles 'occupied the 
V41nab railway station; they began pillaging the houses of Jews under 
tHe'l!iine^ext' that they were searching for arms and Bolsheviki. ■ 
Street fighting broke out, the document says, on the afternoon 
ofiiApril 22,' after the city had been entirely cleared of Bolsheviki. 
A-fconsiderable number of Jews were killed or thrown into prison. 
Pedestriaivs^'in theMStreets were robbed, of their clothing, particularly 
shoes. Prominent residents of the town were arrested land tortured 
and held for ransom. Some were killed. i^ ■ i' , i : 

f.tuo'Ji ' i;-j)io<: 1,500 Killed in Vilna Alone. 

■^"^""Ij^^pSfe'speak of 1,500 persons having been killed in Vilna 
al'(iPig,^fiii'(j"i't' is estimated that from 2,000 to 5,000 were deported 
from VlIi?i^to'Li(S'£''!R'arisoifis'6'f 1,500'to' 15,000 rubles were demanded 
of Jews"who Were thought to have inoney. Those deported were 
subjected to the most cruel treatment, according to the report, being 
clubbed With rifle butts and entirely deprived of food during their 
journey. .liUvA': iJ r^.uo Hot rj'.U ^■v\Ur.i■:l:^,■> 

'•-• 'Othei- reports iW'the'^doeument say 'that the' J'ewisK population 
wte^'fe^tjijeiited'to' indescribable cruelty. The Polish authorities pro- 
hibited' anyone' from selling bread-to the Jews. It was also impossible 
for' thern,' it is said, to bring in food from neighboring localities 
because the Poles forbit the Jews to cross the bridges leading out 
of the city. 

" ' Betv(?een April 19 and May 4, the document says'thje Jews in 
Viln4l"sufifered damage estimated at 6,000,000 rubles." ' ' 

'''''"'^TVebddies'bf'fiYfy-f6'ai-lJieVvs'W!ei:'6 found in the streets between 
April' 19 and April 22. The majority of those killed, it is asserted, 
wfere biiried on the spot where they fell so it is impossible to arrive 
at the exact number of victims. 

44 



WAR OPENS OPPORTUNITY FOR LITHUANIA. 

Spokane (Wash.) Review, June 9, 1919. 

The war has given Lithuania' her chance to return to her 
national entity. In 1917 she declared her independence of Germany 
and Russia, and has since been governed by a provisional republican 
form of government, which has its representative at the peace con- 
ference seeking recognition of it. 

The Lithuanians claim self-determination and independence 
on the basis of ethnic unity, which is indisputable. They are a people 
6,000,000 strong, neither Slav nor Teuton, but a distinct stem of the 
Indo-European family with a language which maintains its original 
form, akin to ancient Sanskrit. Once Lithuania was all of White 
liussia and Ukrainia, but having been partitioned by Prussia and 
tiussia in the eighteenth century its history ever since has been that 
.if an oppressed people. 

In the war Lithuania was a battle field for Russians and 
uermans, and was, of course, overrun and partly devastated. Its 
affairs were administered by a committee established in Berne, which 
committee was able to return to Vilna only after the Brest-Litovsk 
treaty, and onl}- then to protest against the terms whereby Germany 
had gained a free hand in dealing with their affairs. That meant 
opposition to the bolsheviki, active opposition which has gone on to 
the present time, the bolsheviki having seized about one-third of 
their territory, all rich agricultural country, with great natural re- 
sources. 

^^'hen leather was scarce in the war the farmer came at once 
back to his old way of making sandals of wooden soles with little 
straps of leather over the soles. They made them only at home, but 
Lithuanian refugees all over Russia began at once to make them for 
themselves as well as for the Russian soldiery and people. 

Petroleum was not be had, nor were candles. They returned 
to the use of sheep's lard. But lard, too, came under the German 
requisition of fats, so down from the attic came the quaint old taper 
holders, and they made again the tall pine wood tapers as they had 
been taught by their grandparents. 

During the German occupation the grain supply was confis- 
cated, and even the windmills were taken over. Then it was that tha 
Lithuanian brought back his grinding millstones and began to make 
flour by hand, thus providing all the food he needed. 

Farm implements the village smithies could replace with hand- 
made ones. Small tools, such as rakes and threshing device, they had 
long known how to make from wood, and the farmers were supplied 
with excellent tools of real craftmanship. 

46 



As recently as SO years ago the Lithuanian farmer was able 
to make everything he needed in the way of cloth, linen, leather, 
cloth and skin shoes, and on his land he grew what was necessary 
for the nourishment of his body when well and the cure of it when 
ill. All this developed from the ancient arts and crafts which have 
been shown by recent excavations in Lithuania to have reached a 
high degree of accomplishment by the race as far back as 700 to 1000 
years B. C. The farmers in this splendid isolation had even devised 
a kind of soap for personal use, and medicinal baths with herbs and 
roots thrown in were much in vogue. Medicine was all home-made, 
and that witches' brew that has been vindicated since scientists have 
discovered that the new force, Vitaline, exists largely in snakes, eels 
and some of the cabbage forms of plants, was a favorite potion with 
the Lithuanian. 

One of the most charming of their old customs was the use of 
the resinous pine taper, which served curiously not only for light, 
but for a time-piece. The rule-of-thumb measure by which these tall 
tapers were cut provided the Lithuanian maiden with a fairly accurate 
measure of time. They would generally burn 15 minutes apiece, 
with so little variation that, taken as an average, four long tapers 
would have expired and the little spinner or weaver would know 
that she had worked an hour and would leave her loom and reset 
four other pine tapers in a special frame to mark the passage of a 
further hour. 

For clothing the Lithuanian farmer still insists on linen and 
wool of the purest. White linen in summer is everybody's Sunday 
best, and in winter the hand woven wool is reenforced outdoors by 
sheepskin coats closely resembling the aviator's coats. Stockings are 
still of hand knitted wool. 

Naturally in a country where these simple and natural in- 
dustries prevailed for so manj' centuries song and legend grew up 
around the daily task. Songs of harvest time, of growing grain, 
spinning songs, festival and wedding songs have survived the self- 
consciousness of the modern folk music craze, and are still part of 
the pleasure of life to them. 



LITHUANIANS SUBMIT PROOF OF TREACHERY. 

News-Tribune, Duluth, Minn., June 8, 1919. 

NEW YORK, June 7.— The Lithuanian delegation in Paris 
has submitted to the peace conference proof of German treachery in 
surrendering Lithuanian territory to the Bolsheviki and the Poles, 
according to a statement of the Lithuanian national council, issued 

M 



here tonight in comment on Marshal Foch's recent demand upun 
German headquarters at Spa that the Teuton forces be withdrawn 
.from Lithuania. 



FINDS BEAUTY tn SONGS OF OLD BALTIC RACE. 

Sentimentality of Germans Mingles With Characteristic Melancholy 
of Russians in Ancient Airs of Lithuanian Folk, Declares Writer. 

By Charles Henry Meltzer. 
Musical America, June 7. 1919. 

If the folk-songs of a race are the expression of its heart and 
soul, then Litlnianians are the simplest of all peoples. The lilts and 
rhythms which distinguish most of their dainos, astonish one by their 
naivete. And this despite the fact that the Borussian wing of the old 
Lithuanian tribes were somewhat affected by their contact with the 
more sophisticated Germans; while those who were nearer the Poles 
and Russians were unmistakably much influenced by Slavonic 
thought. 

In many of the dainos the opposed qualities of the Slavs and 
Germans mingle. The sentimentality of the more Western race is 
tinged with the melancholy so characteristic of the Russians. Rut, 
in a majority of the Lithuanian folk-songs which have been han<lc<l 
down to us, there is a sincerety more child-like than one finds in 
some of the "lieder" of Franz and Schubert. The Lithuanian melodies 
and texts reflect the greys and greens of a depressing home-land, the 
mists of marshes, woods and wastes and lonely plains. They interpret 
nature in her calmer, humbler moods. In all is the suggestion of a 
life that rarely glows with sunlight. A life hedged in and barred 
from flaming joys. Vague yearnings for a brighter, broader existence 
mark the dainos. Love, as the Lithuanian minstrels paint it, is timid 
and plaintive, as a rule rather than ardent. 

Many folk-songs of the Baltic burtinikas (bards) voice a deep 
hunger for companionship and sympathy. In all there are more 
sighs and tears than smiles, and in few if any are there signs of 
humor. They sing of orphans, seeking comfort; of sisters stretching 
out their arms to brothers for protection against enemies; of sweet- 
hearts to ingenuous in their courtships as to be pitiful. 

47 



ment 



As an example of the Lithuanian love-song, take this frag- 



"Fain would I pray 
From dawn till eve 
To God to grant me 
One little day, 
One day of cheer 
And glowing sunshine. 

Then could I see 
My dearest maiden 
Wringing her clothes 
Beside the pool. 
And there I'd give her 
My morning greeting." 

In this, as in other instances, one hears the echo of a hopeless 
undertone, and the resignation of a gentle, ill-used race. The prayer 
for sunlight is habitual and inherited from the first Pagans who 
were led by fate or chance to choose their homes beneath grey, un- 
inspiring skies. 

Their Narrow Outlook. 

For many centuries the Lithuanians were divided from the 
outer world by the conformation of their country. Streams ana 
morasses parted even tribe from tribe. And, of necessity their out- 
look became narrow. The landscapes which are pictured in their 
songs lack breadth and distance. Yet it is plain that they are dear 
to those who sing them. The nightingale and cuckoo charmed the 
rustics of the Lithuanian land more surely than they did the Italian 
peasants. Their horses, dogs and sheep, their farms and woods, to 
them are full of interest. 

But all one hears in the dainos is pathetic. Through all one, 
feels the cruelty of life ; the need of greater joy and space and sun- 
shine. Tears, half repressed, well up in the dainos. In many, too, 
one finds obscure reversions to the old longings of the early Baltic 
settlers who worshipped fire and bowed their heads before the sun. 

The doleful rue has a more prominent place in the poetic flora 
of the Lithuanians than the white lily and the exuberant, blqodrred 
rose. Of the trees, those chiefly favored by the anonymous "bur- 
tinikas" are the birch and maple, and the unattractive alder. Here 
is the opening of one short daina: ' '' 

"The alder tree is growing- 
White its hlossoms, blaeic- Us' Iferries, 

0, the 6errie$,;.,, .(.,,,, -,..,:i .,_^rfj-o-.H 
The Hack berries! 

4S 



'J'hi: dew fallx on thim softly, 
Olcams. as on the vcrduiit rue 
Dewdiops on thi: bfrrivs, 
Dewdrops on the rue!" 

'Iliere is at least a hint at the poetic in this artless song: 
"0 nightingale. 
Wee bird of eheer, 
^S'hy dost thou not 
Sing all the day. 

How can I sing 
Throughout the dayf 
The herds have uyrecked 
My little nest!" 

'I'he rue crops up again toward the end of this pathetic, though 
dral), .litty : 

"A poor girl /, 
An orphan sad. 
Who all must bear. 
By night oMd tfav. ' 

had 1, had t. 
But a mother — 
My mother, she 
Would plead for me. 

hong, long she ft"f "^'^f* 
I'pon the hill. 
Above her grave 
Rue grows apace." 

In the foregoing folk-songs, the simplicity of the ideas re- 
vealed disarms criticism. They are bare of all but the most primitive-, 
fancy. Yet. by their innocence, they touch the heart. There arc 
sprightlier suggestions in a longer song which tells how all the 
beasts, and worrying insects, whether they be wolves, or dogs, or 
buzzing bees, or fleas, perform fitting tasks which Heaven has set 
for them. The wolves slay calves because "it is their task." The 
dogs defend the farms, for the same reason.,, /Jhe bee was bidden 
to sting ears and fingers. The fleas wake maidens to their morning 
work. And then in these quaint lines we get the moral : 

"O menond women. 

Consider the bee. 

Ye also sting, 

But ye sting the heart. 

Show sweet compassion 

To brother hunmns — 

That is man's task!" 

4D 



The frequent employment of diminutives in the dainos makes 
it difficult in translating to do justice to the originals without lapsing 
into mawkishness. The beast and flowers, the youths and maidens, 
in the folk-songs of the primitive Baltic peoples, are referred to as 
"little cows" and "little dogs," as "roselets" and "lilykins," as "lasses 
and laddies." To Lithuanians this seems right and natural. To 
others it may smack of bathos. 

At times the more modern of the burtinikas, and those especi- 
ally who have been partly Germanized, resort to the ballad form, or 
something nearly approaching it. Here is one instance: 

"As on I wandered 
Over the meadow. 
Over the meadow, 
Through the young clover, 

'Twos then I met 
Two traw young laddies. 
Two braw young laddies. 
Right strapping brothers. 

They bade me kindly 
A glad good morning. 
But ne'er I lifted 
My wreathed brow." 

Soon after the maid ran into a king's son — a Prussian. What 
followed, she takes pain not to make clear. But one suspects, from 
her amgibuous mode of narration, that she was not so coy as she; 
would have one think her. Passionate, love, of the kind the Latins 
sing of, must have seemed lawless to the inventors of the dainos. 
Yet, here and there, one stumbles on such reckless utterances as this, 
sung by a woman to her lover: 

"Take the goblet in thy hand. 
Thou whom in my heart I terasure. 
Sit thee down. my beloved 
Thou whom in my heart I treasure." 

One of the most popular and ancient of the dainos deals with 
the story of a maiden who, like Melisande, in a careless moment lets 
her ring fall into a spring — under a maple tree. A young man, or a 
young god (he might be either), riding by on a brown steed, with 
golden trappings, comes to her assistance. What follows is, as usual, 
told but vaguely: 

"Beneath the maple see the spring 
Where the sons of heaven 
In the moonlight dancing go. 
With the gods' own daughters." 

60 



Perhaps the most ambitious, and beyond question the most 
literary, of the Lithuanian folk-songs is a symbolical lamentation of 
a mother whose dear daughter has just died. With no small 
eloquence it describes the funeral rites, the summoning of the dead 
maiden's bier, and her departure from her home for her last resting 
place. But, in this song, the mother always treats the funeral as a 
wedding festival, his sort of song is of the class named raudos. The 
imagery of tlie bard who wrote the words is almost Semitic. The 
mother calls her daughter her "white lily," her "red rose," her 
"fragrant clove," her "full-blown sunflower." She informs her that 
she has called together her family "with bells and organs." She bids 
her child bow her acknowledgments to her friends and neighbors for 
attending the festival in her honor. She speaks of the dead maiden's 
bridal robe and of her journeying from her home, alas, forever, while 
the guests sing songsto speed her on her way to "the land of souls." 

"My little daughter," says the mother to her child, "thou bride 
among souls, I set thee free as a soul-bride. But never shalt thou 
come again to visit me. I shall see thee here no more." 

The ideas which underlie the verses of this rauda may be un- 
clear, but in effect they are poetic, and, when sung, with the right 
fervor and expression, the verses should be extremely poignant. 
The real beauty of the Lithuanian folk-songs was, till a hundred years 
ago or less, unsuspcted and undreamt of by the great nations of the 
European world. It is impossible to read or hear the dainos (and 
above all the weird raudos) of the interesting people which is now 
asking for admission to the community of free and civilized nations, 
without feeling that, apart from all their courage, shown in their 
fight against the red tyranny of the Leninists, they are as worthy as 
the Czechs and Jugo-Slavs of human sympathy. 



LITHUANIANS HERE ACCUSE POLAND OF 
TRANSGRESSION. 

Again Demand National Independence and Retirement of Poles 

from Lithuania. 

Newark News, June 6, 1910. 

That Poland is carrying on a war of extermination against 
Lithuanians was the charge made in a long dispatch from l-*itts 
Sanborn, an American newspaper man, to the Lithuanian National 
Council in New York, submitted at a mass meeting of Newark 
Lithuanians last night at Lithuanian Hall, 180 New York avenue, 
by Vincent W. Ambroze. The cable is dated June 2 at Paris. It 

61 



evoked a fresh resolution from the gathering calling for the inde- 
pendence of Lithuania and demanding that Poland leave the occupied 
Lithuanian territory. 

"The Polish-Lithuanian situation is more strained every day 
and may force Lithuanian retaliation," the dispatch opens. "Polish 
agents propagandize in the churches of the occupied districts of 
Vilna and Grodno. Archbishop Theoforovitch, notorious from his 
record in Lemberg, has arrived in Vilna to direct the work of colon- 
ization. Lithuanian state employees have been dismissed, Poles sub- 
stituted. The Lithuanians protest the Polish usurpation. The Polish 
army pretends, as in Ukrainia, to fight the Bolsheviki, but the Polish 
expressions of friendly spirit toward the Lithuanians differ from their 
deeds.' The Polish Diet desires to renew fraternal relations with its 
neighbors in the spirit of historic Jagellonic traditions and the modern 
principles of self-detemination of peoples, insinuating Lithuania shall 
have autonomy under Polish hegemony. 

unrii But self-determination of the Lithuanian nation excluded 
Polish interference and hegemony, since Lithuania desires complete 
independence. The Lithuanians deny inheritance of Jagellonic tradi- 
tions outside' Polish ethnographic boundaries, and therefore protest 
the Polish invasion of Lithuania. Friendship is impossible before the 
Polish army leaves Vilna and Grodno. The Allies must sharpen re- 
striidtionsi"0ttr.fH^lle<iS'J>tVoops to prevent encroachment of Polish 
impefialista^. " 

' ' Complain of Hostile Policy. 

. I.v:;jlr /rj btii; ,-v;i ;■ 
"There i^ aj.,,c;learly hostile policy," continues the dispatch, 

"charapteri^ed, by. t^^' jntroductiqn of machinery exclusively Polish, 
and accompanied by acts of pillage, persecutions and even exterm- 
ination in mass of Lithuanian citizens. On account of this hostile 
action of the Poles, Lithuania-n-^ troops are obliged to direct their 
entire effort toward the southern front to defend their country 
against attack by Polish ariiiieS^; -whose irruption tended to enlarge 
the field (if invasion. .MOI28aaO.L 

'>y\ '>"H ■■''n-^h''ifiqf>i . 



LITHUANIAN INDEPENDENCE. 

Cleveland, 0., Plain Dealer, June Ji, 1919. 

.j<.j'I^„i;i,eitl^?i^P,tlip,G^qr^a?i i^or-jtl^GftAiistrian treaty is there any 
suggestion pi Lithuanian independence,, , ..The Lithuanian people in 
the, .LT.nited, States, .feel ,, that; a, gj:eat jnj;iS(t|cje is being perpetrated. 
They,^ljegp,,tbat^)the doctrisipiof ,s,elf-4fitej-miriation is ignored in this 
inS]tanpe, and, that, t^l,e Litljuanjai^s, .a pj^ople manifestlj- distinct from 

6S 



any of their neighbors, are being parceled out after the ma!rinfer of' 
the old-time peace congresses. - 

The Lithuanians demand a plebiscite to decide the future of 
the Lithuanian lands. There is justfCeiii this demand. If, as is 
claimed, the Lithuanian masses possess a vigorous national con- 
sci.iusness and are keenly desirous of independent national existence 
there is no vklld'i'eason for ignoring them. The question can readily 
be settled Tjy' a plebi'sciteimder international control. 



THE POLITICAL iPARTIES OF LITHUANIA. 

By C. J. Gedwil'I,!Ct'S,^¥. 
Kankakee, III., Jtepubncan, June 4, 1919. 

.. ,, In the course of the great international drama which culmi- 
nated in an Allied victory in November, many characters have been 
brought upon the world stage with those talents, traits, and ante- 
cedents most of the world is unfamiliar and with whose ideals and 
aspirations, stifled as they had been by centuries of despotism, the 
world was practically ignorant. Isolated as she had been by distance, 
by policy and by intense application to domestic affairs, America in 
particular had grown out of touch with, if not utterly confused by 
the mazes of European politics and the clash of national interests in 
the. Eastern Hemisphere did not interest her. But the ingenuity of 
autonomy forced out the pillars which formerly had supported its 
imperialism, whilst the battering guns of democracy were leveling 
thrones in the dust, the interest of humanity in those small nations 
on which autocracy has for so long battened was aroused in America, 
and with the clearing away of the smoke and wreckage of empire it 
becomes appropriate to present to the public the claims of one of 
the smaller nations — Lithuania of today. ;• ; 

There is very little difference of opinion among the Lithuanian 
people themselves concerning the form of government under which 
they are desirous to live. Lithuania at present is a republic of six 
million inhabitants, under a provisional government, maintaining its 
battle lines against Russian aggression of Bolshevists, and geograph- 
ically larger than Switzerland and Denmark combined. Area of 
square miles approximately 47,000, asks for its recognition as a free 
ii.ition on the basis of the declared war aims of the Allies and of th^ 
United States. Lithuania represents a distinct ethnic group which, 
despite its subjugation by Germans and Russians, has never re- 
nounced' its claims to independence. Its inhabitants are a stem of 
the Indo-European people, neither Slavs nor Teutons; industrious, 

S8 



liberty-loving and democratic, with a literature and language of 
their own resembling the ancient Sanskrit. 

No one treasures American Freedom more highly than the 
Lithuanians. Four parties were born with the cultural and national 
awakening of the country. Their political tenets, passing from 
radical left to the conservative right, are as follows : The Social 
Democrats appeared before the restoration of Lithuanian print and 
press in 1904 and the rank and file of this party are composed chiefly 
of city workingmen. Its membership is naturally small on account 
of the meagre industrial development of the country. It has never 
succeeded in electing any of its candidates to the Duma. 

The People's Socialist Party bears a close resemblance to the 
Social Revolutionists' Party of Russia led by Kerensky and, probably 
to the Populist Party of the United States. One of its fundamental 
principles stands for the ownership of lands, but demands the distri- 
bution of government lands and large estates among those who have 
little or no property. The majority of its candidates were elected 
to the Duma. 

The Democratic Party is composed mostly of the intellectual 
elements. The war has caused them to split into two factions. The 
right wing is known as the "Progressivists" (with the weekly "Voice 
of the Lithuanians" as its organ), while the left is called "Concordists 
for the Democratic Freedom of Lithuania." The latter publish their 
organ entitled "Santara" or Concord. This division was particularly 
marked among the Lithuanian residents of Russia. These two parties 
may be said to form the central political group and are responsible 
for the most of the positive and constructive work which has been 
performed since the Lithuanian Awakening. 

The Christian Democrats are perhaps the strongest in point 
of organization and number. They control the masses of the people 
chiefly through the clergy who are close to them and who have great 
influence. Their democratic tenets have Christian ideals. The Lithu- 
anian religious hierarchy, which until recently, was controlled by 
the Poles, now has passed entirely into Lithuanian hands, excepting 
possibly in the diocese of Vilnius. In this locality, up to the begin- 
ning of the war, an intense struggle was waged against the agents 
of the Polish National Democrats and their instruments of Polish 
Imperialism. The work of this party had an important bearing on 
the reawakening of Lithuania. 

Following the Russian Revolution which took place, November 
28, 1905, another party was born. It was known as the Lithuanian 
National Catholic Union and it is but little diflferent from the 
Christian Democrats. Its politics were also based on religion. We 
shall see later that all the parties of the Young Lithuanian move- 

M 



ment acknowldge the principles of democracy. Every one of them 
demands an independent Lithuania with a republican form of govern- 
ment based on equal, secret, universal and direct ballot. Only the 
.very extreme left among the People's Socialists and Social Democrats 
of the Bolshevist type favor such srelf-determination, which might 
possibly force Lithuania back into Russia on a federative basis. 

We find a similar alignment of these parties in America, pos- 
sibly with this diiiference : that instead of the Populists and Social 
Democrats there is a Socialist Party, and instead of two moderate 
parties such as in Russia, there is in America a middle party, the 
so-called National Democrats, with which the right wing of the 
Populists affiliates itself, and the third, the Christian Democratic 
Party, which sometimes goes under the name of the Catholic Party. 

Foreign-born Americans of Lithuanian extraction in the United 
States number over one million. They have left the land of their 
fathers, a land where they had been oppressed and constrained in 
every phase of the national and individual existence by a foreign 
despot — Russia and Germany ; they have found a welcome haven 
in America. Here they reap the benefits of freedom, education and 
culture freely and unhindered, for which favors they are profoundly 
grateful to our Government and to the people of the United States. 

Lithuania has already received promises of British recognition 
and support. She is now making her appeal to the people of the 
United States for support and recognition. 



ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION. 

Three Centuries of Lithuanian Robbery Show Practical Subjugation. 

Tribune. Providence, R. I., June 1, 1919. 

That economic domination and political exploitation go hand 
in hand, is shown eloquently by Lithuania, the oldest European 
republic. Russia and Germany, East and West, through three cen- 
turies of oppression, have robbed Lithuania of not only its lands, but 
also of its right to labor. 

Russian generals took possession of the land, and rented it to 
tenants who exploited the peasants and allowed the property to 
deteriorate. Banks bought Lithuanian land, and colonized it with 
Russian peasants. Lithuanian peasants were not allowed to buy 
land, and were forced to emigrate. 

Russia subsidized imports into Lithuania, and taxed exhorbi- 
tantly agricultural exports from Lithuania. 

Germany placed a high protective tariff on all Lithuanian farm 
products, and Russia placed a prohibitive tax on German machinery 

66 



imported into Lithuania. Lithuania therefore had tie hind. They 
could not export their products, and they could not import machinery 
to facilitate their farm labor. They were crushed, impoverished, and 
they fled in thousands to America. 

With a history of black misery to spur them, Lithuanians now 
are making every effort to have their newly won independence 
acknowledged at the peace table. 



LITHUANIANS CHARGE POLES WITH BRUTALITY. 

A'rg'uspAlhany, N. Y., June 1, 1919. 

New York, May 31. — The Lithuanian National Council has 
just received the following cable from its Paris representative: 

"Advices received from Paris state that the Bolsheviki assem- 
bled a large force against Vilna and bombarded the railway station 
and city. The Polish troops brutally treat Non-Polish population of 
Vilna, especially the Lithuanian intellectuals. They pillage money 
and jewelry in streets. Persons without Polish passports are held 
up, especially Lithuanians, their pockets are emptied and money 
stolen. The newspaper Nepriklausoninji Lietuva, published in Vilna, 
names prominent persons on whom levies were made, also. Lithu- 
anian Policlinic. At Grodno the Poles mistreated a Lithuanian officer, 
leaving him half dead. 

"In districts occupied by Poles the population was forced to 
speak Polish. Lithuanian authorities at Kovno, according to wishes 
of Allies, proposed to Poles joint action against Bolsheviki. Poland 
refused. Polish forces occupying Vilna perpetrate massacre of Jewish 
population. 1,200 dead and wounded up to May 5th reported by the 
Jewish committee constituted to inquire into casualties. Material 
damage done by Poles figured at 60 million francs. 

"Polish authorities make leading Jews sign declaration that 
Jewish population was not disturbed after occupation of Vilna by 
Poles. Many prominent Jews refused signature. 

■ "Poles decided annex not only occupied Lithuanian territory 
but all Lithuania. Lithuanian government decides to resist with all 
its force. Bolsheviki menace serious." 



"FETE OF POVERTY." 

Statu. Salem, Ore., June 25, 1919. 

Writing from Vienna, an American newspaper correspondent 
narrates the epic of the hundred days of the Bolshevik occupation 
of the ancient Lithuanian city of Vilna. At the beginning of the 

66 



war this city had a population of 200,000 and its cathedrals and 
museums were the repositories of the choicest religious relics and 
art treasures in Western Russia. By the' 'end of the Bolshevik 
dominion the population had dwindled to less than 50,000, the 
cathedrals had been desecrated and the relics carried away ; even 
the windows and doors of the museums had been stolen and every 
movable thing of value had disappeared. 

The correspondent brought with him from Vilna attested 
photographs of horfbrs too gruesome for publication. The fiendish 
ingenuity of the American Indians for torture appears humane com- 
pared to the Bolshevik outrages. If a group of the intellectual Bolshe- 
vists in this country could have passed that period of 100 days in 
Vilna it is possible that their social ideas might have undergone a 
salutary metamorphosis. 

One of the first acts of the Bolsheviki when they took posses- 
sion of the city was to declare a "Fete of Poverty." On a given day 
every member of the proletariat was authorized to sally forth and 
take what he desired from the person or household of another 
wealthier than himself. It was during this mad day of plunder that 
the churches were first rifled ; doors of private residences were 
smashed and the contents of the houses was fought over by the 
vicious elements of the population with all the fury of wolves. 

Many of the raiders returned to their homes to find that their 
property had been pillaged during their absence, for those who 
possessed little became the prey of those who possessed nothing. 
The Red Guard encouraged every movement toward violence. Fires 
raged throughout the night and those who had fled from their homes 
were caught in a blinding snowstorm. The day after the fete dawned 
on hundreds of frozen corpses and a scene of desolation with few 
parallels in history. 

This "Fete of Poverty" is but one of the beneficient institu- 
tions of soviet government in Russia. 



LITHUANIA. 

Christian Science Monthly, Boston, Mass., June 26, 1919. 
The geography of Europe will have to be unlearned and re- 
learned now that the articles of peace are to be signed. How many 
people have known what Lithuania is, where it is, who the Lithu- 
anians are, and what their history has been? Not many, and yet 
Lithuania has had a dramatic, if a rather unchronicled, record. 

Lithuania is the northermost barrier between Russia and 
Germany, a strategic position, which, if she is independent, shuts 

57 



the gate between East Prussia and Russia, and if she is overwhehned, 
opens the gate. Lithuania is north of Poland, with a seacoast line 
of 100 miles on the Baltic Sea. 

Lithuania's people are neither Teutonic nor Slavic, but a 
separate branch of the Indo-European race, with a language closely 
resembling the ancient Sanscrit. In appearance, Lithuanians are 
large and povve.ful, with fair hair and blue eyes. They are an in- 
dustrious, tenacious people, with a high appreciation of culture, a 
rare capacity for work, both manual and mental. 



LITHUANIA UNDER THE HUN. 

By A. Voldemar, 

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Head of the Lithuanian Delegation 

to the Peace Conference. 

New York Times, June 29, 1919. 

Almost from the beginning of the world war America was 
filled with stories of German misbehavior in conquered regions. It 
heard with credulity, changing to horror, the story of Belgium. By 
degrees it learned of the hideous slavery of little Luxemburg, a 
country to which Germany pointed proudly as the happy thing 
Belgium would have been had not King Albert's Government tried 
to block the passage of German troops. Of what was going on to 
the east of the Central Empires less was known — thick night 
lighted momentarily by sinister flashes. The story of Lithuania 
during those dreadful years is only finding publicity now, although 
Lithuania occupied from the military point of view a most exposed 
position as the territory of the then Russian Empire lying in im- 
mediate contact with East Prussia on the Baltic coast. 

Germany did not here begin with a campaign of "frightfulness" 
as she had in Belgium. When her troops had overrun Lithuania she 
chose to adopt other tactics. First she tried conciliation, as she did 
wherever she hoped that a disaffected people under the Russian, 
yoke might be wheedled into alliance with the Central Powers and 
opposition to Russia and the Entente Allies. Germany began by 
planning a representative body ostensibly elected by the people of 
f ithuania, but so constituted that it should act under German influ- 
ence and provide a soothing medium through which the German 
Government could win to itself any unfriendly elements in the newly 
ronijuered region. 

The German belief was that selected Lithuanians would fall 
easy victim; to wily German statecraft and somehow or another un- 

58 



consciously establish themselves as a screen for the nefarious work 
which the Germans were mapping out. Needle"ss to say, the twenty 
men chosen, representing all parties and classes, were political leaders 
in the provinces, and other men in popular esteem who had dared to 
.stay on after the German occupation. They were not summoned by 
the committee to create any instrument useful to the German author- 
ities, but to take into their own hands the destinies of the country 
and to find independent representatives for the country. 

Their meetings were held from the 1st to the 4th of August, 
1917. After reviewing the entire situation, the twenty decided to 
demand from the Government of occupation the right to hold an 
election throughout Lithuania for the purpose of choosing other 
representatives to the Conference of Lithuania — representatives who 
alone could act in accordance with the will of the people and organize 
a' provisional Government on their own responsibility. The Germans 
withheld" their consent, but agreed that villages and cities should 
select men for the Conference of Vilna. Under this plan 264 repre- 
sentatives to the conference were elected from 33 counties. 

The conference was held from the 18th to the 23rd of Sep- 
tember, 1917, and there was present not one representative who had 
not the full confidence of the Lithuanian people. The representatives 
proceeded to hold, on their return to their constituencies, a kind of 
plebiscite. Each representative visited allotted villages, parishes, 
and cities, arranged informal meetings, and so made public the action 
of the conference. At these meetings the resolutions of the confer- 
ence were approved. 

This victory for the Lithuanians in their program of national 
consolidation aroused the fear of the Germans, who saw their plan 
of conciliation and absorption placed in jeopardy. 

The Lithuanian Council was at once isolated by the enemy 
authorities in the capital city of Vilna. Its members were forced to 
remain in that city, and every attempt at communication between 
the council and the people at large was blocked. The only weapons 
of defense left to that body were protests and memorandums. 

But the revolution in Germany following the definite defeat 
of the German armies brought about an amelioration of the situation 
in Lithuania. The council proceeded to create a national cabinet, 
which immediately set to work with a twofold purpose — first, to 
organize the country and further consolidate it; secondly, to take 
forcible measures against the Germans. The entire country approved 
these steps. 

At the same time the council invited the Jews and the White 
Russians to participate in its labors. This invitation was accepted. 

59 



Three Jewish delegates were elected by the representatives of the 
national religious and economic committees of the Lithuanian towns, 
committees chosen by universal suffrage. The White Russians sent 
six representatives elected at the White Russian Conference at Vilna, 
■composed from every part of Lithuania. In this manner the council 
consolidated all parties in the country, with the exception of a few 
of the large landed proprietors of Polish origin and connections, 
whose sympathies inclined them toward Poland. 

Just when all was at last going so favorably for Lithuania a 
terrible menace loomed to the eastward — Russian Bolshevism. It 
was to meet this menace and to prepare for war against it that a 
preliminary assembly was called together in January, 1919, to hear 
the reports of the activities of the Lithuanian Council and to outline 
a program for carrying on its work. 

Since by that time the Bolsheviki had already occupied a part 
of Lithuainia, the Government was removed to Kovno. From all 
the unoccupied parts of Lithuania representatives elected at a general 
election held in all parishes, villages, towns and cities came to Kovno. 
About 200 representatives participated in the sessions held from 
January 17 to 23, 1919. This assembly heard the reports from the 
council and the Cabinet, approved the same, expressed confidence in 
both bodies, and re-elected all the members. 

Here rests the story of the German plot against Lithuania 
and the courageous and successful resistance of the Lithuanian people 
until the Peace Conference adds the next chapter by recognizing the 
integrity of Lithuania and constituting it an independent State. 



ANCIENT REPUBLIC MOTHERS' NEW IDEA. 

Commercial Tribune. Cincinnati, 0., June 29, 1919. 

Lithuania, the living sister of the Greeks, has in her veins the 
same blood that gave to the world the works of the greatest Grecian 
sculptors. Her works have been buried in obscurity just as Greek 
sculpture was buried in the earth. Greek art was uncovered. Lithu- 
anian sculpture has been discovered. 

This sister race of the Hellenes, whose democracy is older 
than the Greeks, preserved not only her ancient flair for the plastic 
art. It has kept alive through centuries of oppressiim the same in- 
eradicable aspiration for political freedom. 

And it is this national hope and love of the soil of their mothei- 
land that has made modern Lithuanian sculpture what it is. 

The French have called Lithuanian sculpture the threshold of 
art. Their own artists are going to Lithuania for inspiration. For 

60 



while other nations and schools may have technique and methods 
and ideas, the French have been quick to recognize the supreme 
idea of all. And that idea is a subject 'so powerful that it leads to 
expression in art. Art too often seeks an idea to express. 

Rimsa, perhaps the greatest of Lithuanian sculptors, gave \o 
the world "The Lithuanian School," a group which symbolizes the 
.grand subject and cause of Lithuanian art. The old woman sitting 
by her spinninf wheel, and teaching a child to spin, is a national 
symbol. It is the symbol and portrait of a secretly preserved 
nationalism. For the suppressed language of the Lithuanians was 
preserved only in secret after the fashion of the old woman at the 
spinning wheel. 



LITHUANIA LOOKS TO U. S. FOR BULK OF IMPORTS. 

Ready To Pay For Goods Badly Needed — Wants Machinery, Chem- 
icals and Factory Equipment For Projected Clay and Other In- 
dustries — Must Rebuild Railways and Highv/ays Destroyed by 
the War. 

New York Commercial, New York City, June 30, 1919. 

The attention of American exporters has just been turned to 
a new held by the action of the War Trade Board in lifting the em- 
bargo on exportation to Lithuania, that small state on the Baltic Sea 
whose claim for independence is being presented to the world, says 
the Bureau of Information of the Lithuanian National Council in 
New York. 

"The embargo has been lifted to a practical end, for Lithuania 
HOC only needs the products of the United States," says the state- 
ment, "but she is also ready to pay for them. 

"Already her co-operative societies, of which she has 184, are 
preparing to meet the bills of extensive importation and her trade 
societies and credit associations are busy perfecting plans for a lively 
interchange with the United States, both on a cash and on a trade 
basis. 

"Lithuania looks to America for the bulk of her needed com- 
modities, not only because America has the things she wants and 
can sell them to her at a price she can pay, but also because there 
is a sympathy of ideas between the two countries that makes the 
little Baltic republic look toward the United States with confident 
eyes. This confidence begins in the Lithuanians' hope that America 
will help them to their political independence and extends to a faith 
in America's business world, which the Lithuanians expect will fur- 

61 



nish them imniodiatcly with the raw materials, machinery, seed, etc., 
they need so urgently to rebuild their war racked country. 

For the manufacture of her clay, quartz and chalk into pottery, 
Lithuania needs the proper machinery and chemicals. She has no 
potteries now to speak of, but is extremely anxious to build them. 

"To manufacture clothing, piece goods, beddings, etc., from 
her abundance of flax and wool, Lithuania asks American producers 
to send her machineiy and factory equipment. She grows more flax 
and wool than she needs, and oft'ers them in exchange for cotton, 
of which she has none. 

"To transport all these things to her own people and to develop 
the country in general, Lithuania must rebuild her railroads and 
liighways, practically all of which were destroyed during the war. 
American steel rails, rolling stock, cars, parts and supplies are 
needed. 



FAMINE KILLS MANY ON FARMS IN LITHUANIA. 

By ISAAC DON LEVINE. 

(Special Correspondence of The Bufifalo Commercial and 

Chicago Daily News.) 

Buffalo, N. Y., Commercial, June 20, 1919. 

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 2. — Lithuania is facing famine 
in its most horrible form. The death percentage is enormous. Food 
conditions in A'ilna, the capital of the country, are catastrophic. 
Unemployment is widespread. These statements were made by 
Dimanstein, the peoples' commissioner of labor of the Lithuanian 
republic. At the same time the Poles are continuing their advance 
into Lithuania and White Russia, in spite of the appeals of the 
government of these two lands for a peaceful solution of all boundary 
questions. 



POLISH-LITHUANIAN RELATIONS. 

Ncivs. Rome. Idaho. June 18, 1910. 

Polish- Lithuanion relations have reached the point where 
military retaliation on the part of Lithuania is expected daily. The 
Polish Diet professed a desire to renew fraternal relations with 
Lithuania, declaring that country would have autonomy under 
Polish control. 

Protest has been filed with the Peace Conference against the 
Polish invasion of Lithuania, declaring that friendship is impossible 

62 



until the Polish army leaves the governments of Vilna and Grodno. 
The allies have been requested to sharpen restrictions on General 
Mailer's troops and to prevent encroachments by the Polish im- 
perialists against Lithuanian freedom. - 

Cecil Harmsworth, under-secretary of state for foreign aiifairs, 
was questioned in the British parliament as to the allied policy with 
regard to Lithuania. He answered in the negative the question : 
"Did the allies sanction Polish occupation of the Lithuanian capital 
of Vilna?" 

The Lithuanians claim that the invasion of their territory by 
the Poles has diverted the attention of their army from the Bolshe- 
vist, so that the menace of the latter has become more serious than 
ever. Clearly the situation is one the allies must meet quickly if 
it is to be relieved. The Bolsheviki offer the greatest menace to 
the allies and their cause. If they can settle the differences between 
the Lithuanians and the Poles and devote their entire attention to 
the Bolshe\'iki, there will be general approval. 



LITHUANIAN PREMIER SEEKS POLISH TREATY. 

Evening Journal, New York City, June -^8, 1910. 

Premier Slezevicius of Lithuania has directed the Lithuanian 
delegation at the Peace Conference to ask that the Entente Govern- 
ments induce Poland to make a treaty with Lithuania setting a 
boundary between their armies. 

A cable message to this effect has been received by the Lithu- 
anian National Council from its Paris representative. The Poles 
have continued their advance into Lithuania and occupied the 
districts of Kaiserderys and Alyta, where there are no Bolshevists, 
the Premier asserted. 



MOST OF LITHUANIA IS CLEARED OF BOLSHEVIKI. 
Gen. Zukauskas Now Driving on Reds Near Dvink and Czarasoy. 

Tribune, New York City. June 27, 1919. 

PARIS, June 25. — General Zukauskas, with a Lithuanian 
army of 25,000, has expelled the bolshevik forces from the greater 
part of Lithuania, and now is commencing an offensive against the 
Bolsheviki near Dvinsk and Czarasoy, according to a dispatch re- 
ceived from Captain Howell Forman of the American Baltic relief 
administration headquarters, dated Kovno, Lithuania, June 24. by 
Herbert Hoover, chairman of the inter-allied relief commission, 
today. 

63 



This movement is a continuation of the combined Lettish, 
Esthonian and Lithuanian movement which resulted in the expuL 
sion of the Bolsheviki from Riga in May. 



MILLION AMERICANS OF LITHUANIAN EXTRACTION 
SPEAK FOR INDEPENDENCE. 

Montgomery, Ala., Times, Juiu 2k, 1919. 

Five thousand Lithuanians, who represent one miUion Amer- 
ricans of Lithuanian extraction and six million Lithuanians in their 
Baltic home-land have crystallized the national aspirations of their 
oppressed nation in a set of resolutions which they presenter at a 
gathering in Carnegie Hall. These resolutions are addressed to the 
American public and governing body. 

'We, Ameiican friends of the freedom of Lithuania, and Amer- 
ican citizens of Lithuanian descent, in meeting assembled at Carnegie 
Hall in New York City, hereby unanimously resolve: 

"First, that the republic now established in Lithuania has been 
set up in full agreement with the Allied principle of the self-determ- 
ination of small nations, and is a free and spontaneous expression of 
the will of the Lithuanian people with regard to territory whose 
ethnic, geographic and linguistic individuality has been established 
beyond all doubt and whose exclusive control, possession and ad- 
ministration is the sacred right of the Lithuanians. 

"Second, that the invasion of this country by foreign armies 
is a violation of the declared war aims of the Allied Governments 
which liberal opinion the world over condemns as indefensible inter- 
ference with the right of Lithuania to self-determination. 

"Third, that in order to enable Lithuanians to rebuild their 
country, to resist the attacks of Bolshevism, and to take their place 
as a prosperous, independent European State, and in accordance with 
the war aims of the Allied Governments, we hereby request the 
Government of the United States and the Governments of the Allied 
Nations to recognize the complete independence of the Lithuanian 
Republic." 



MOBILIZATION IN LITHUANIA. 

Rev. John T. Jakaitis Receives Telegram Sent To New York 

From Paris. 

Worcester, Mass., Gazette, June 2i, 1919. 

Rev. John J. Jakaitis, pastor of St. Casimir's church, today 
received the following, which is. a copy of a telegram just sent to 

64 



the Lithuanian National Council, New York, by its Paris representa- 
tives : 

"President Smetona has today called a mobilization of all 
men between the ages of 19 and 24, it is officially announced from 
Kovno, and has named General Zukauskas commander in chief of 
the Lithuanian army. The latter is one of the most remarkable men 
in Europe; a graduate of the War Academy at Petrograd he 
distinguished himself in the Russo-Japanese war. During the World 
War he began as a captain and was wounded four times while in 
active service on the German front. He has commanded a division 
of the Lithuanian army, has been held prisoner by the Bolsheviks, 
and was minister of war in the first Lithuanian Cabinet. With 
General Zukauskas at the head of its army, the Lithuanian govern- 
ment is confident of being able successfully to combat the Bolshevist 
invasion and the other dangers which threaten Lithuanian inde- 
pendence. 

"The Lithuanian-American committee for the revictualing of 
Lithuanian women and children was today founded at Kovno, and 
has already begun to function. The Americans are going through- 
out Lithuania and are being received everywhere with the greatest 
enthusiasm by the Lithuanian population, which sees America as 
its liberator from German and Bolshevist oppression, and its 
savior from famine. Several hundred children organized a great 
demonstration of gratitude before the quarters of the American 
delegation and expressed their attachment and love for their Amer- 
ican rescuers." 

The Lithuanian National Council has also forwarded copies 
of the telegrams received from Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Presi- 
dent Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University, President 
Jacob Gould Schurman of Cornell University and Senator Arthur 
Capper of Kansas, all favoring independence of Lithuania. 



ASKS FOR LITHUANIA FULL INDEPENDENCE. 

America's Representatives Called Upon for Protection Against 
Aspiring Neighbors. 

Attitude of Poles Feared. 

Speaker at Meeting Here Doubtful of Paderewski's Good Intentions. 

League of Nations Approved. 

Times, New YorJc City, June 23, 1919. 

Immediate recognition of the Lithuanian Republic and the 
cessation of the invasion of Lithuanian territoiy were the demands 



peace delegation by a meeting held yesterday afternoon at the 
Vanderbilt Theatre under the auspices of the Lithuanian National 
made upon the Government of the United States and the American 
Council. F. B. Mastauskas, President of the Council and counselor 
to the Lithuanian peace mission in Paris, sharply criticised the 
utterances of Premier Paderewski of Poland, and declared there 
was no intention on the part of the Premier to approve the inde- 
pendence of Lithuania, a country which was in a strategical position 
that was coveted by various nations, especially Poland. 

Mark Eisner, former Revenue Collector, who presided, said 
that peace could not be maintained if strong nations were permitted 
to overcome weaker ones, and that Lithuania was a small nation 
which should be permitted to exist independent of any other. He 
further said that the League of Nations must be supported if this 
principle were to remain valid after the signing of the Peace Treaty. 

The Rev. Dr. J. Zilius addressed his audience in Lithuanian, 
and between the speeches the parish choir of the Church of the 
Annunciation sang Lithuanian folk songs. At the close of the meeting 
the following resolutions were adopted unanimously by those present 
who were said to represent 300,000 members of Lithuanian societies 
in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. 

"Whereas, We, the American citizens of Lithuanian origin, 
having loyally supported the Government of the United States in 
the prosecution of war against autocracy and militarism, feel that 
the lasting settlement of the war depends upon the sound solution 
of the Baltic problem and the claim of the Lithuanian people ; there- 
fore be it 

"Resolved, That we hereby respectfully petition his Excel- 
lency, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, Depart- 
ment of State, United States Senate, the House of Representatives, 
and American peace delegation for immediate recognition of the 
independence of the Lithuanian Republic and its present Government 
as de facto Government of the independent Lithuanian Republic ; 
and also be it 

"Resolved, That we protest against invasion of the Lithuanian 
territory, especially the city of Vilna, the capital of Lithuania, by 
Poles, Bolsheviki or any other foreign aggressors ; and be it further 

"Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to 
President Wilson, to the Senators and Representatives of our States, 
to the American peace delegation, and to the Department of State." 

In opening his address Mr. Mastauskas emphasized the fact 
that most of those present were native Lithuanians who had come 
to America and had become Americans because they appreciated the 
privilege of living in a land of liberty such as they had not enjoyed 

66 



before the war. "Every Lithuanian," he continued, "would rather die 
tightitij^ than give up the independence that has now come. Poland 
would like to take us under its wings, but the Lithuanian delegates 
to • the Peace Conference said that they took the position that 
they would be willing to have representatives of the League control 
any part of their territory which might be the subject of dispute 
until such time as a plebiscite might be held. The Poles would not 
listen to that. We read today, however, that Paderewski says : "The 
Foles do not deny the right of the Lithuanians to independence." 
But we know that he says that merely for public consumption at a 
time when it is too late. He follows it uj) by declaring that autonomy 
should be established by the immediate holding of a plebiscite, when 
he knows that if it were held immediately, while the territory is 
occupied by Polish and allied soldiers, the people would have to 
vote just as their masters dictated." 

Mr. Eisner impressed upon his audience his conviction that 
they were meeting as fellow Americans who wanted the same prin- 
ciples of liberty which they enjoyed applied to the people across the 
seas. "We want to help any people, anywhere," he declared, "that 
is trying to set up as an independent and free nation like our own." 



PROCLAIM THEIR LOYALTY TO U. S. 

Lithuanians of Boston Score Bolsheviki. 

Boston Herald, Junr ID, 1019. 

Resolutions voicing allegiance and loyalty to the United 
States and denouncing any form of government inconsistent with 
law and order were unanimously adopted at a meeting of Greater 
Boston Lithuanians in Faneuil Hall last night, following a vigorous 
attack upon bolshevism. 

The resolutions set forth that the Lithuanians were desirous 
of publicly proclaiming their confidence in the United States govern- 
ment and enlisting the aid of the nation in establishing a free and 
iiidependent government in Lithuania and in opposing any propa- 
ganda or aggression inconsistent therewith. 

The audience rose and cheered when F. J. Bagocius, a lieu- 
tenant in the United States army during the war, announced that 
a public hearing would be held at the State House Monday on a 
resolution favoring Lithuanian independence. Lieutenant Bagocius 
spoke both in English and in Lithuanian, and declared that the rule 

67 



of Lenine and Trotzky in Russia was merely the imposition of a 
new form of autocracy. 

Secretary of State Albert P. Langtry declared that every 
Bolshevist should be deported. He said that in the city of Boston 
thousands of bolshevists were regularly holding meetings and car- 
rying on their insidious propaganda, threatening the nation and its 
officials. He appealed to the Lithuanians to stand true to the 
institutions of America, their adopted home. 

Other speakers included Bernard J. Rothwell of the bureau 
of immigration, who told of the formation of an advisory board to 
help the foreign population on any questions relating to their in- 
terests ; George F. Flynn and John J. Roman, a former lieutenant 
in the army. Dr. Paul J Jakmauh of South Boston presided. 



LENINE HAS FAILED TO GAIN SUPPORT OF 
LITTLE PEOPLES. 

Finns, Poles and Others in the Russian Empire Oppose Reds* Rule. 

END THIS YEAR PREDICTED. 

Anarchy and Famine Make Nation-Wide Organization Impossible. 

By Herbert Adams Gibbons. 

Philadelphia, Pa., Press, June 16, 1919. 

PARIS, May 15.— In my letter of yesterday, I set forth two 
causes for expecting a collapse of the Bolshevist movement in the 
near future in Russia. Anarchy and famine can confidently be ex- 
pected to work against Lenine and his associates much more power- 
fully than any army we could put into Russia. But there are other 
signs of the times to encourage us in the belief that Bolshevism is 
rapidly falling in Russia, and that its threat of contaminating the 
rest of Europe need not be considered seriously. 

It is significant that Lenine, while proclaiming the intention 
and the certainty of founding an international State on Bolshevist 
principles, has not been able to win over to his cause a single non- 
Russian element of the old empire. Finns, Esthonians, Lettons, 
Lithuanians and Poles have successfully opposed Bolshevism and 
prevented its spread in their territories by arms. Races of the 
Caucasus — Georgians, Armenians and Tartars — and the Cossacks 
of Kuban have not become impregnated with Bolshevism. The 
Cossacks of Kuban have put up a gallant fight against the Bolshe- 
vists. 

68 



ARTISTRY IN THK SIMPLEST FABRICS. 

Lithuanian "Love Bonds" Are Beautifully Woven in Soft Tones. 

Springfield, Mass., Republican, June 15, 1919. 

"When a Lithuanian woman weaves an inharmonious color 
scheme, you must know that she has studied art and become arti- 
ficial." This is the common contemptuous critique of Lithuanian 
women to whom every color is an emotion, and every design a mood. 
Lithuania shows its spiritual aloofness and clear personality unmis- 
takably in its hand-woven scarfs and the meiles rysiai, or "love- 
bonds'' that encircle a Lithuanian gii^l's waist. 

Lithuanians never have been given over to garish colors, to 
brilliant and boisterous hues. Neither have they the Italian tempera- 
ment that goes with such colorings. They have not the Slav tempera- 
ment and they have resisted the Slav influence strongly and com- 
pletely in their textile art. 

Soft reds, violets, olive greens are most used in their color 
combinations. When they are in a happy mood, the colors sound 
a brighter note. When they are somber, and more oppressed than 
ordinarily, colors are grayed and move in slower design. 

It is the peasant women, quite untutored in art, who work 
the greatest miracles of beauty. Textiles which are made from thread 
spun and dyed by themselves, are woven with care and inspiration 
on their hand looms. Originality is prized highly, and conventional 
designs are never used save as a point of departure. Formerly only 
geometric designs were used, as intricate as the thought and in- 
spiration of the moment could make them. But of late, leaves, 
flowers, birds and the omnipresent "Christmas tree" have found 
their way into the textiles. 

Lithuanian girls are taught almost in babyhood to weave 
these articles. Their tiny fingers are taught to copy patterns their 
mothers made, to make the beautiful mosaic-like girdles, the linen 
tablecloths, the towels of satiny linen that last through years of use, 
and the exquisite tapestries that they never use but "keep in the 
families" for heirlooms. 



REDS IN FLIGHT BEFORE ONRUSH OF LITHUANIANS. 

Many Towns Are Captured in Successful Advance Along the 
Entire Front; Pursuit Sharply Pushed. 

FEASANTS RISE IN REVOLT. 
Tribune, New York City, June 13, 1919. 
COPENHAGEN, June 12. — A Lithuanian official communi- 
cation received here says: 

69 



"As a result of a vigorous attack by the Lithuanians all along 
the front numerous points have been captured from the Bolsheviki, 
including Subiathkai, Rokischkas, Kriaunds, Abelai and Kutninkai. 
The Bolsheviki were dispersed and energetically pursued. They are 
novir evacuating Dvinsk and retreating on Smolensk." 



LITHUANIA ACCUSES POLES OF BRUTALITY. 
Asks Peace Conference to Start Inquiry. 

Sun, New York City, June 12, 1919. 

PARIS, June 5. — In a memorandum addressed to the Peace 
Conference the Lithuanian delegation has requested the Supreme 
Council to appoint an interallied commission of inquiry to investigate 
alleged pogroms by Poles in parts of Lithuania occupied by Polish 
forces and other illegal acts alleged to have been committed by the 
Polish army of occupation. 

If the charges are verified the Supreme Council is requested 
to order the Polish troops withdrawn from the occupied parts of 
IJthuania. If the withdrawal were ordered, it was set forth, the 
Lithuanian government would undertake to defend Lithuania against 
the Bolsheviki if war supplies were furnished to the Lithuanians. 

"According to official information," the memorandum states, 
"Polish armies in occupied parts of Lithuania have created conditions 
extremely hard and humiliating for the population. They have in- 
dulged in pillaging, seized securities and valuables, robbed museums, 
organized wholesale requisitions, arrested employees of the Lithu- 
anian Government, imposed the use of the Polish language, and 
finally, have committed wholesale pogroms against the Jewish 
population, whose dead and injured already count up an imposing 
number." 

The memorandum declares that the Polish Government and 
its troops, in their "invasion" of Lithuanian territory, were and are 
far more interested in paving the way for the incorporation of purely 
Lithuanian territory with Poland than in fighting the Bolsheviki. 
It says the presence of the army is merely an encouragement to 
Bolshevism, since the Polish policy is directed to the protection of 
the rich Polish landholders against the poor masses. 



FREE LITHUANIA. 

Grand Rapids, Mich.. News, June 10, 1919. 

Seldom in all the history of Europe has racial self-assertion 
been so strong as it is at the present. It has taken the world war, 

70 



with its consequent promise of freedom to all people, to bring out 
to the full those racial traits that have persisted throughout the 
centuries despite oppression and in the face of attempts often to 
annihilate whole peoples. 

In the olden days, in the United States, we used to regard 
Poland and Lithuania almost as one. There was then not apparently 
the sharp division between the two races that there is now, for both 
were being oppressed by a stronger nation and both were drawn 
together in a measure against the common enemy. But now the 
hopeless division is asserting itself. All the world is realizing the 
difference between Pole and Lithuanian, and everyone knows there 
never can be a union of those two peoples, so different in charac- 
teristics, in history, in ideals. What pains America is that the two 
races, dwelling side by side, and each after centuries appearing about 
to achieve its ambition to be free and independent, cannot get along 
together, being mutually helpful instead of antagonistic, both striving 
for the common end, which is liberty, the breaking of the shackles 
that so long have held them bound to a foreign race. 

One would have to delve deeply into history to be able to 
understand the situation along the Baltic. y\n attempt to state the 
case here can only be made. But in that region dwell the Lithu- 
anians, the Letts, the Eshonians and, further south, the Ukranians. 
All four have been fighting the bolsheviki, but each claims that 
Poland, at opportune moments, has attacked them. The Poles have 
conquered Lida, Pintsch and the Lithuanian capital. Vilna. They 
have invaded all of so-called White Russia, taking an area of some 
73,000 square miles, with a population of some 8,600,000. Lithuania 
is a country with a population of 9,600,000, although that includes 
many not of Lithuanian blood, and an area of 78,500 square miles, 
according to the greatest claims of her sympathizers. On Jan. 25, 
1918, the White Russians, together with the Lithuanians, decided to 
form a single nation, which would stretch practically from the Baltic 
to the Black sea. 

Lithuania has made other attempts to become independent. 
At the time of the upheaval in Russia, during the Russo-Japanese 
war in 1905, Lithuanians, irrespective of political affiliations, hclil 
a convention in their capital, Vilna, over 2,000 delegates participat- 
ing. They unanimously asserted their right of self-government, 
expressing a strong desire to form one political body with their 
half-brothers, the Letts. 

Again in October, 1917, a convention was held in Vilna, with 
9.50 delegates from all parts of Lithuania. In January, 1918, repre- 
sentative Lithuanians assembled in the same city and proclaimed 

71 



independent Lithuania. Anothen convention of Lithuanian com- 
munities in the United States, England and Argentina, held in the 
same month in Stockholm, Sweden, approved the act. On March 13 
and 14, 1918, American Lithuanians held a convention in New York 
City, giving their unanimous approval to the proclaiming of inde- 
pendent Lithuania. On April 4, 1919, Lithuania was proclaimed a 
republic and A. Smetona elected president. 

Unanimous resolutions were passed protesting against any- 
Polish aspirations or claims to Lithuania and demanding that the 
Lithuanian part of East Prussia, with the old Lithuanian City of 
Karaliauchus (Koenigsburg) should be taken away from Germany 
and included in the Lithuanian republic. Today the Lithuanians, 
Letts and Esthonians are protesting against the Poles, who are in- 
vading their territory. 

Historically, Lithuania is one of the most interesting countries 
in Europe. The Lithuanian people are fair, light-haired, blue-eyed, 
tall and strong. They are in no way related to the Teuton or the 
Slav. About 2000 B. C. their ancestors crossed from Asia to Europe 
and settled along the Black sea near the mouth of the Danube. 
Gradually they were pushed by other races until they came to the 
Baltic, and there finally settled. They lived in clans until the 
thirteenth century, when on .".ccount of national danger they banded 
themselves together. They chose Ringaudas for the first grand duke 
of Lithuania and soon they had collected an army. They defeated 
the (jcrmans and stopped the advance of the Mongolians. The White 
Russians are mostly of Lithuanian stock, although greatly Rus- 
sianized through the centuries. 

To show the desperate attempts of Russia to destroy the 
racial consciousness of this people, it is recorded that they were 
forbidden by Russian ukase in 1864 to use the Lithuanian language, 
and the possession of any books, even books of prayer, printed in 
their tongue, was considered a political crime. All Lithuanian 
schools, of course, were closed. As a result of this ukase the people 
were unable to publish any books of their own, so they imported 
them from Germany, where newspapers printed in their language 
also were issued. Li 1904 the Russian ukase was revoked and the 
use of Latin type re-established. Today it is claimed that 92 per 
cent of young Lithuanians can read and write. 

Lithuania is largely agricultural. There are only a few fac- 
tories in the country. But the country is capable of wonderful 
development. The Russians would not foster anything. For in- 
stance, there are salt springs of highly medicinal value at Grodno, 
or Gardinas, but the corrupt politicians at Fetrograd would never 
allow anything to be done with those springs. 

72 



There is something highly sentimental in the appeal of the 
Lithuanians for self-preservation and self-assertion. They are the 
direct descndants of the early Aryans, and so far as we know, the 
purest of those descendants. Their language today bears striking 
resemblances to the Sanscrit. W'riting of the Lithuanian language 
in his "Modern Philology," Benjamin W. Dwight says: "This is a 
language of great value to the philologist. It is the most antique 
in its form of all living languages, and most akin in its substance 
and spirit to the primeval Sanscrit. It is also at the same time so 
much like the Latin and the Greek as to occupy to the ear of the 
etymologist, in the midtitude of words not otherwise understood, 
the place of an interpreter." 

The Lithuanians lia\ e earned the right to independence in the 
great war. They have fought in the ranks of most of the allied 
armies. Of the 750,000 Lithuanians in the United States. ;'. fpir 
proportion have borne arms for Uncle Sam. Most of these Lithu- 
anians have come to the L'nited States after 1905, when the Russian 
government began to persecute them for their attempts to gain 
independence. During the war their home land suffered not for its 
faults, bi:t mostly because it lay between two belligerents, Russia 
proper and Germany. In the avalanche of news from France and 
Belgium, we heard little of the sufiferings of Lithuania, which were 
terrible. 

The voice of America ought to be raised in the interest of 
this ancient race, long oppressed, but now seeeking independence. 
Throughout its history this people has preserved its primitive 
virtues. In the new era it ought of right to be set free and left to 
work out its own destinies, and every right-thinking nation must 
come to its rescue and demand its release from thralldom. The 
United States, especially, cannot do otherwise than plead the 
cause of Lithuania, which looks to us above all nations to 
come til its aid in what we hope will be its last gallant struggle for 
independence. 



GIVE PROOFS OF HUN TREACHERY. 

Greeneville, Tenn., Sun, June 10, 1919. 

NEW YORK, June 7. — The Lithuanian delegation in Paris 
has submitted to the peace conference proof of German treachery in 
surrendering Lithuanian territory to the bolsheviki and the Poles, 
according to a statement of the Lithuanian national council issued 
here last nigbt in comment on Marshal Foch's recent demand upon 

73 



German headquarters at Spa that the Teuton forces be withdrawn 
from Lithuania. 

Lithuanian territory regained from the bolsheviki, the state- 
ment said, was given over to the Russian soviet regime by the 
Germans in December last, a month after the signing of the 
armistice. Until then, it was said, the Lithuanian army, without 
external aid, had successfully defended the country, and could con- 
tinue to do so if the Germans and Poles were withdrawn. 

Crimes of the Germans in Lithuania, the statement asserted, 
included arrests and shooting of natives and requisitions upon their 
property, sale of contraband, including sugar, salt, arms and am- 
munition, to the bolsheviki and freeing of bolsheviki agents arrested 
by the Lithuanians. 

Near Zyzmariai, a letter from Premier Slezevicius of Lithu- 
ania said, the Teutons attempted to surrender a Lithuanian battalion 
to the bolsheviki for 9,000,000 marks, and at Alyta they gave over 
forty machine guns to the soviet troops. 

When the Poles were operating against the Grodno district, 
the statement charged, the Germans surrendered the city of Grodno 
to them for 3,000,000 marks, and when Vilna was evacuated by the 
bolsheviki the Teutons turned that city over to the Poles, preventing 
the Lithuanians from pressing their advantage against the retreating 
Russians. 

The Lithuanians' representations, according to the statement, 
are under consideration by the peace conference. 



LITHUANIANS SEEK INQUIRY BY ALLIES. 
Polish Invaders Accused of Brutality and of Territorial Cupidity. 

Tribune. Ni'w York City. June }. Ulltl. 

PARIS, June 3. — In a memorandum addressed to the peace 
conference, the Lithuanian delegation has requested the Supreme 
Council to appoint an inter-Allied commission of inquiry to investi- 
gate alleged pogroms by Poles in parts of Lithuania occupied by 
Polish forces, and other brutal and illegal acts alleged to have been 
committed by the Polish Army of Occupation. 

If the charges are verified, the Supreme Council is requested 
to order the Polish troops withdrawn from the occupied parts of 
Lithuania. If the withdrawal should be ordered, it was set forth, 
the Lithuanian government would undertake to defend Lithuania 
against the Bolsheviki if the Lithuanians were furnished with war 
supplies. 

74 



"According to official information," the memorandum states, 
"Polish armies in occupied parts of Lithuania have created condi- 
tions extremely hard and humiliating for the population. They 
have indulged in pillaging, seized securities and valuables, robbed 
museums, organized wholesale requisitions, arrested employes of 
the Lithuanian government, imposed the use of the Polish language, 
and, finally, have committed wholesale pogroms against the Jewish 
population, whose dead and injured already count up an imposing 
number." 

The memorandum declares the Polish government and its 
troops in their "invasion" tif Lithuanian territory, were and arc far 
more interested in paving the way for incorporation of purely Lithu- 
anian territory with Poland than in fighting the Bolsheviki. It says 
the presence of the army is merely an encouragement to Bolshevism, 
since the Polish policy is directed to the protection of the rich Polish 
landholders against the poor masses. 



LITHUANIANS MAKE APPEALS. 

10,000 Wyoming Valley Residents Address Resolutions to 
President Wilson. 

URGE SELF-DETERMINATION. 

Denounce What they Term Polish Aggression — Hold Outing 
at Valley View. 

The Record, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., July a, 1919. 

That Lithuania shall be granted self-determination was the 
sentiment expressed by all of the speakers addressing over 10,000 
persons of Lithuanian birth or descent gathered together from 
Luzerne and adjoining counties at the field day held yesterday at 
Valley View Park. This sentiment was also contained in a set of 
resolutions unanimously adopted and which provide for the sending 
of petitions to President Wilson and Congress asking for the recog- 
nition of the independence of Lithuania, and to President Wilson 
and the American peace delegation asking that the principles of self- 
determination be applied to Prussian Lithuania, and that the Niemen 
River be given entirely to the Lithuanian republic. 

Copies of a resolution denouncing Polish aggression, occupa- 
tion and i)illaging of Lithuanian territory and the terrorizing of the 
population will be forwarded to President Wilson, the Secretary of 
State, the .American peace delegation and to members of the Senate 
and House of Representatives. 

76 



The resolutions were presented by Attorney M. M. Slikas of 
Philadelphia, who presided. Hon. Peter A. O'Boyle explained the 
theory of self-determination, voicing his belief that the right should 
be given to smaller nations to decide for themselves and that these 
should be restored to their original conditions, particularly as to 
territorial restoration. 

Leonard Simutis, a member of the executive committee of the 
Lithuanian National Council, outlined the activities of that body and 
what has been accomplished in this country. 

The news that Mark Eisner, who was scheduled to deliver 
the address of the afternoon, was unable to be present was received 
with regret. 

The winner of the Marathon in the morning from this city 
to the park was John Gunderman of Plymouth, who received a silver 
cup. William Rice, who was among the first to finish, received a 
special cup for being the first Lithuanian to breast the tape. 

The spiritedly contested base ball game between the Kingston 
Knights of Lithuania and the Pittston Lithuanians was won by the 
former. 



Service Flag Unfurled. 

During the open air mass which was celebrated by Rev. Ben- 
jamin Paukstis during the morning in honor of Lithuanian soldiers 
and sailors who died while in active duty, a large service flag was 
unfurled, side by side with the Stars and Stripes. The sermon at 
the mass was preached by Rev. Alexander Saulinskas. The honor 
roll bears the following names : Kingston — Frank Zmuidinas, Joseph 
Valincius, Dominick Kalitavicius, Vincent Biskis, Vincent Maiziesius, 
Martin Sesonis, Frank Degutis, John Sumbris, Anthony Damanskas; 
Pittston — Joseph Jakulinas, Constant Kasezitius, Joseph Leskauskas, 
Michael Novickas, Michael Lukasz, Peter Petronis, John Pranuska- 
vicius ; Scranton — John Martinkus, Dominick Kasparavicius, Bernard 
Grigalunas, Casimir Garlius, Joseph Brazaitis, Chris Gerve, John 
Vesockis, Bronis Supinis, Alexander Tunila, Peter Taleisa, Peter 
Matulevicius, Stanis Ausena, George Plaucka, John Jarasunas, 
Vincent Viesa, Anthony Stepanavicius, D. Ganciauckas ; Wilkes- 
Barre — Joseph Smaidziunas, Silvester Ambrasas, Joseph Leskauskas. 

Several of the bigger athletic events of the morning were 
cancelled. Boxes of candy were awarded to the winners of the girls' 
race, while the boys received Boy Scout shoes. Cigar were presented 

76 



to the wining team in the tug-of-war. Silk umbrellas were awarded 
as prizes to the winners of the big girl's race. 

The boxing exhibition between Jack Bennett and Peter 
Dougherty was also cancelled because Bennett had injured his finger. 
The bout between Frankie Venchal and Bradley Walsh resulted in 
a draw. 

The pavilion was jammed all hours of the afternoon and 
evening by hundreds of couples dancing to the strains of Pokorny's 
eight-piece orchestra. When the news was announced in the late 
afternoon that the Dempsey-Willard fight had been postponed for 
an hour great sighing issued forth from a multitude of husky male 
throats. 

The net proceeds of the day will be turned over to the Lithu- 
anian national fund to be used to further Lithuania's struggle for 
independence and world wide recognition. 



LITHUANIA'S CLAIM TO INDEPENDENCE. 

Crises in Their History Are Said to Have Always Brought Out 
Lithuanians' Fine Qualities, Turning Disaster Into Success. 

Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Mass., July 8, 1919. 

A previous article on the above subject appeared in The 
Christian Science Monitor on July 7. 

PARIS, France — It is worthy of note, all through the pagan 
period in Lithuanian history, that whenever any peril faced the Lithu- 
anians, the crisis always served to bring out their splendid qualities, 
whereby disaster was turned into success. Here are the causes and 
effects, summed up : 

Oleg began the conquest of Lithuania, and in a short time 
the Lithuanians ruled the entire western and southern Russia. The 
Tartars, under Chinghish Khan Timuchin demanded tribute from 
the Lithuanians, and the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vitenis destroyed 
the Tartar hordes, compelling Chinghish Khan to retreat to Asia. 
In later times the Tartars voluntarily submitted themselves to the 
protection of Lithuania. The Livonian Knights began the con- 
quest of Lithuania, and, in 1586, they also voluntarily came under 
Lithuanian rule. The Teutonic Crusaders, with reenforcements 
drawn from the entire Christian world, invaded Lithuania, and in 
200 years found themselves utterly destroyed by the Lithuanians and 
their allies. The Poles pressed their way into Lithuania, but, defeated 
by force or arms, submitted, in 1386, to Lithuanian rule. 



Beginning of Decline. 

It was the introduction of Christianity into Lithuania that 
marked the beginning of Lithuania's decline. The fault was not 
with the religion itself, but the way it was applied. The ancient 
Lithuanian religion, based on the laws of nature, was understood by 
all the people. Christianity did not penetrate Lithuanian thought, 
but was imposed on the people. Outwardly Lithuanians were 
Christians, but in the heart they remained always the same wor- 
shippers of fire and other elements. But the most destructive feature 
of the Christian mission in Lithuania was the influence of the foreign 
clergy, which condemned all things Lithuanian — language, customs, 
culture, traditions. 

No sooner was Christianity introduced into Lithuania than the 
ancient Lithuanian democracy perished. In 1413 a joint diet of Poles 
and Lithuanians was held, and on that occasion the first-class distinc- 
tion was injected into the Lithuanian Nation. The Poles bestowed 
titles of nobility on all prominent Lithuanians, and thus began the 
assimilation of Lithuanians and their course of life by Poland. In 
1521 serfdom was introduced, making the masses serfs or slaves of 
the few masters, the nobles. This was a very real disaster to Lithu- 
ania, the home of a very genuine early democracy. 

The whole tragic story of decline culminated in 1569 when, 
in the treaty of Lublin, Lithuania surrendered all its independence, 
losing to Poland such provinces as Volhynia, Kief, and Podolia. But 
even these territorial losses were insignificant in comparison with 
the loss of sovereignty. 

Loss of Sovereignty. 

With Sigismund Augustus, the last Lithuanian King of Poland, 
in 1572, there passed away the glory of Jagellonian Poland. The im- 
mediate consequence was the formation of the Cossacks from the 
oppressed White Russians and Ruthenians, who under the rule of 
democratic Lithuania, had enjoyed liberty and freedom. In the 
seventeenth century, a Cossack uprising under Bohdan Chmielnicki, 
covered the country with fire and sword, and almost simultaneously 
the Lithuanians, under Prince Janush Radzivill, allied with the 
Swedes, rose in revolt. Both these events are described by Henry 
Sienkiewicz in his novels, "With Fire and Sword," and "The 
Deluge." 

There was not a decade of tranquillity in the entire period of 
Polish rule. Internal disorder assumed such proportions that foreign 
powers found it easy to invite themselves to take a hand, and in 1772 
the first partition of Poland took place, by which Lithuania passed 

78 



umler the rule of Russia and Prussia. In 1863 the Lithuanian and 
Polish nobility prepared an elaborate revolt against Russia, when 
the wily Czar, Alexander II, nipped it in the bud before hostilities 
could begin by abolishing serfdom. 'Fhe insurrection totally failed 
in 1864, and the Russian Empire became absolute master. 

The first act of the Russian Ciovcrnment, after the collapse of 
the insurrection of 1864, was to blot out the name of Lithuania from 
the maps of Europe. The second was to stamp out the Lithuanian 
language, and to crush the Lithuanian national spirit, as far as they 
could. The struggle served to stimulate Lithuanian ambitions and 
aspiratiims, which developed to such an extent that in 1904 Russia 
found her ])urpose defeated, and was compelled to restore the Lithu- 
anian language and many economic and social rights of the people. 

In 1905, when the Imperial Duma was created, Lithuanians 
regained their place among the living nationalities of the world, and 
they were represented as a distinct national unit in that assembly. 
A struggle for Lithuanian autonomy, as the first step to absolute 
independence, was on a good way to success, when the war broke' 
out in 1914. 

Free Lithuania. 

After all the trials of war, Lithuania, which seemed to have 
perished, has risen again in its ancient spirit of democracy, and at 
present is a de facto republican State, absolutely independent of any 
power. Seldom in all the history of Europe has racial self-assertion 
been so strong as it is at the present. It has taken the world war, 
with its consequent promise of freedom to all people, to bring out 
to the full those racial traits that have persisted throughout the 
centuries, despite oppression and in the face of attempts often to 
annihilate whole peoples. 

In pre-war days, in the United States, Poland and Lithuania 
were regarded almost as one. There was then apparently not the 
sharp division between the two races that there is now, for both 
were being oppressed by a stronger nation and both were drawn to- 
gether in a measure against the common enemy. But now the hope- 
less division is asserting itself. All the world is realizing the differ- 
ence between Pole and Lithuanian, and every one knows there never 
can be a union of those two peoples, so diflferent in characteristics, in 
history, in ideals. The two races, dwelling side by side, and each 
after centuries appearing about to achieve its ambition to be free 
and independent, cannot get along together, or be mutually helpful 
instead of antagonistic, while they are striving for the common end, 
which is liberty, the breaking of the shackles that so long have held 
them bound to a foreign race. 

79 



Situation on the Baltic. 

One would have to delve deeply into history to be able to 
understand the situation along the Baltic. An attempt to state the 
case here can only be made. But in that region dwell the Lithuanians, 
the Letts, the Esthonians and, further south, the Ukrainians. All 
four have been fighting the Bolsheviki, but each claims that Poland, 
:'.t opportune moments has attacked them. The Poles have con- 
quered Lida, Pinsk, and the Lithuanian capital, Vilna. They tried 
to invade all of so-called White Russia, an area of some 73,000 square 
miles, with a population of some 8,000,000. Lithuania is a country 
with a population of 9,600,000 and an area of 98,500 square miles, 
according to the greatest claims of her sympathizers. On January 25, 
1918, the White Russians, together with the Lithuanians, decided to 
form a single nation, asking the Letts and Ukrainians to join them, 
making all together a large Nation that would stretch from the Baltic 
to the Black Sea. 

Lithuania has made other attempts to become independent 
At the time of the upheaval in Russia, during the Russo-Japanese 
War in 1905, Lithuanians, irrespective of political affiliations, held 
a convention in their capital, Vilna, over 2000 delegates participating. 
They unanimously asserted their right of self-government, expressing 
a strong desire to form one political body with their half-brothers, 
the Letts. 

Again in October, 1917, a convention was held in Vilna, with 
950 delegates from all parts of Lithuania. In January, 1918, repre- 
sentative Lithuanians assembled in the same city and proclaimed 
independent Lithuania. Another convention of Lithuanian com- 
munities in the United States, England, and Argentina, held in the 
same month in Stockholm, Sweden, approved the act. On March 13 
and 14, 1918, American Lithuanians held a convention in New York 
City, giving their unanimous approval to the proclaiming of inde- 
pendent Lithuania. On April 4, 1919, Lithuania was proclaimed a 
republic, and A. Smetona elected president. 

Todajr the Lithuanians, Letts, Esthonians, and Ukrainians are 
protesting against the Poles, who are invading their territory. 



LITHUANIAN SOLDIERS TO GET LAND AWARDS. 

The Evening Sentinel,' Milwaukee, Wis., July 12, 1919. 

PARIS — The Lithuanian council of ministers on Friday de- 
cided to distribute land among Lithuanian soldiers. Each soldier is 
to receive between twent}- and fifty acres or land as his own private 
property. 

80 



If public lands do not suffice to go around, landowners with 
more than 1,250 acres will be compelled to cede to the state from 10 
to 30 per cent of their holdings. This will go into a rural land pool 
and be distributed among the troops. 

According to statistics half of the land in Lithuania now be- 
longs to the peasants, the average holdings being from 52 to 140 acres. 

Reports reaching here from White Russia and Lithuania state 
that two brigades of bolshevist troops have been dispersed. 



PARIS WARNS POLES TO GET OUT OF LITHUANIA. 
Warning to Poland. 

Tribune, Chicago. III. July 12. 19V.}. 

Premier Clcmenceau participated in the "little five" meeting 
long enough to read a telegram from Warsaw stating" the Polish 
army had begun an offensive against the Lithuanians and had ad- 
vanced several miles inside the prescribed Lithuanian-Polish bound- 
ary. The "little five" instructed Marshal Foch to telegraph Premier 
Paderewski and Gen. Pilsudski immediately to cease offensive war- 
fare and retire to the Polish frontier, under pain of disciplinary 
measures from the peace conference. 



ORGANIST'S SON HEADS REPUBLIC. 
Anthony Smetona Is First President of Lithuania. 

Traveler, Boston, Mass., July 12, 1919. 

A cable to the Lithuanian National Council at Washington an- 
nounces that the first President of the Lithuanian republic has been 
inaugurated at Kaunas, the provisional capital of Lithuania. Anthony 
Smetona was elected April 4 as the First President by the Taryba or 
national council. 

Anthony Smetona was born 48 years ago in Lithuania, the son 
of a village organist. He was educated at the schools of Libau and 
at the University of Moscow. He studied law and was admitted to 
the bar, but did not practise law. For a time he was editor of the 
daily newspaper Viltis, that sprang into existence in 1915 after the 
edict against the use of the Lithuanian language was removed by 
Russia. 

Ever since he entered public life 20 years ago, Mr. Smetona 
has been an ardent worker for Lithuanian independence. He re- 

81 



mained in Lithuania during the German occupation directing the 
work of relief of the war sufferers and protesting against German 
oppression. 

He is idolized by the members of all parties and is partial to 
none. All parties are reported as supporting his government en- 
thusiastically and under his able direction the government is laying 
the foundations for a stable form of government for the republic of 
Lithuania. 



POPE ENDSORES LITHUANIANS' STRUGGLE FOR 
INDEPENDENCE. 

Last Gap in Europe's Wall Closed Against Bolsheviki. 

Herald, Grand Rapids, Mich., July 13, 1919. 

NEW YORK, July 12. — The army of Bolsheviki which 
recently invaded Lithuania en route to Europe, numbering thousands, 
fully equipped and possessing machine guns and other artillery, has 
been conclusively defeated by a much inferior force of Lithuanians 
and driven far to the east. 

These Lithuanians are a part of the army recently organized 
by the new Lithuanian government, and their victory has cleared 
their country of Bolshevik forces. 

According to a cablegram that the Lithuanian national council 
has received from its Paris representative, President Smetona, the 
elected head of the provisional government of Lithuania, announces 
that as a legislative, judicial and administrative establishment his 
ancient Baltic country is now completely organized for the business 
of government. 

All Territory Organized. 

President Smetona's announcement declares that all territory 
under the Lithuanian government is now completely organized. It 
continues: "The administration of justice and enforcement of the 
law is fully provided for in the organization of the courts from 
justices of the peace to the supreme tribunal, all of which are now 
functioning. The country's courts fully provide public prosecutors 
and their staffs; jail and jailers are equipped under control of the 
ministry of justice. Besides this, the local police, gendarmes and 
militia garrison are organized and wholly adequate to maintain order 
as enforced by court." 

This creation of organized government, the organization of a 
large army, which is now well under way, and the defeat of the 
Bolshevists thus are of vital importance to the world since they con- 

82 



stitute the closing of the last gap through which the armed forces of 
Russian Bolshevism might find their way into Europe. 

The importance of Lithuania as a barrier and the justice of 
that nation's claim for independence are attested by the indorsement 
of Pope Benedict, who has definitely declared the Holy See to be in 
favor of a free and independent Lithuania. In a papal communica- 
tion through Secretary Cardinal Gaspari of the Vatican to Foreign 
Minister Voldemar of the Lithuanian cabinet, who is in Paris, the 
Pope welcomed the prospect of receiving this new nation into the 
family of free Catholic states and pledged all assistance to the 
realization of the just and legitimate aspirations of Lithuania. 

The communication from the Pope was in response to an 
a])peal from the Lithuanian foreign minister delivered to the head 
of the Catholic church by Count Alfred Tv-''?-kiewics, envoy extra- 
ordinary to the Vatican from Lithuania, in private audience. 

Foreign Minister Voldemar's letter to Pope Benedict was 
as follows: 

Letter to Pope. 

"The world commotion through which we have passed will 
have among t)ther effects, we hope, liberation for oppressed peoples. 
The Lithuanian nation, divided between Russia and Prussia, is labor- 
ing to the extent of its power to realize this benefit. The strength 
of its former masters have crumbled, it has resumed liberty and 
constituted itself a new and independent state. 

"We joyfully call your attention to the fact that a Catholic 
people resumes the rights belonging to it and consequently a new 
member enters the family of free Catholic nations. 

"In the hope of consolidating in liberty our country, we in the 
name of the Government of Lithuania at the feet of the apostolic 
seat of the supreme and infallible judge of the rights of men on 
earth, place our humble supplication that it be recognized an inde- 
pendent Lithuanian republic." 

The Papal reply was received by the Lithuanian officials with 
great joy. It said: 

"The sentiments of deference toward the supreme ecclesiastical 
authority expressed by your excellence in the name of the Lithu- 
anian government in your note of May 23 last, have been particularly 
agreeable to the Holy Father, who knows well and appreciates greatly 
the noble qualities and virtues of the Lithuanian population; ex- 
hibited not onlv through the political im])ortance they had in the 
past but again, and above all, through the firmness and constancy 
thev have displaye<l in their defense of the Catholic faith in the face 
of gravest difficulties. 



"The Holy See does not doubt that a most briUiant future is 
reserved for Lithuania after prompt amelioration of the terrible 
damage caused by the war. It expresses the wish that to Lithuania 
too. may be granted the right of self-determination and that the 
generous Lithuanian population must soon bring to the concert of 
nations precious contributions of their new energies, vivified by their 
faith and reinforced by the happy acquisition of their liberty. 

"The Holy See will not fail to favor all that tends to the 
realization of the just and legitimate aspirations of Lithuania and 
the safeguarding of its religious interests. It nourishes firm hope 
that Lithuania, for its part, remembering always the prolific results 
produced even in civilian affairs by means of happy understanding 
between two powers, will always preserve toward the Holy See its 
traditional sentiments of filial veneration. 

"The Holy See accords with all its heart to you and to all its 
Catholic sons of Lithuania its apostolic benediction." 

CARDINAL GASPARI. 

The Rev. Justin Staugaitis, vice-president of the Taryba 
council charged with a mission to the Pope and temporarily in Paris 
said, regarding organization of the Lithuanian army : 



Flower of Youth in Army. 

"When Lithuania began to organize their army's first enlist- 
ment, the nation's flower of educated youth walked 60 kilometers 
and enlisted in a body. Village youths followed, their heads 
wreathed. The first cadets were volunteers. Some wore long coats, 
some short, some high hats, others caps, some were in furs, others 
in rags, some shod, others barefoot but everybody carried some sort 
of a gun and a heart fervent with love of the mother country. A 
body of these were marched against the Bolsheviki who had pene- 
trated Lithuania in the desire to coccupy Kaunas, where the Lithu- 
anian government had succeeded in strengthening its organization, 
and performed a miracle. Thousands of Bolsheviki full}' equipped, 
possessing machine guns and other artillery were faced by these 
Lithuanians armed with any and every kind of old gun and were 
expelled by them and chased far to the east. This was accomplished 
by the first companies of volunteers. The organization of the Lithu- 
anian army began only in January and today numbers tens of thous- 
ands. The Bolsheviki have been completely expelled from Lithuanian 
territory and are no longer a danger to the Lithuanian people. 

84 



AGAINST POLISH OCCUPATION. 
Lithuanians and Ukrainians March in Protest and Adopt Resolutions. 

Provideiic)'. K. I., 

Ukrainians and Lithuanians, 3200 strong, marched through 
Providence street yesterday afternoon in protest against the occupa- 
tion of their home lands by Polish armies. 

The flags of the two countries, associated with the Stars and 
Stripes, were borne aloft by virile standard bearers, and men and 
women, many carrying babes in arms, marched silently in the 
procession. 

In the procession were delegations from Woonsocket, Central 
Falls, Manville, Crompton, Millville, Uxbridge, Taunton and Fall 
Rivc", led by Emil Rekrut, chief marshal, and Marshal A. Asmenkos 
and A. Snyder, assistant marshals, and the following staff: Joseph 
Karpovitz, Vincent Bankavskas, J. Adamonis, John Okalaxicines, A. 
Avizinis. A. Gryskus, Rev. Basil Turula, H. I.Iykytyn, J. Kiawezuk, 
C Sidzinsky, A. Brekovitz and S. Wardyga. On the committee in 
charge were A. Sydor (chairman), H. Mykytyn, T. Hevka and 
M. Vesel. 

The exercises were held in the Elks' Auditorium, which was 
crowded. Rev. Fr. Basil Turula of the Uniate Catholic Church, 
Woonsocket, presided with Andrew Sydor as Vice Chairman. 

FolhDwing the speechmaking resolutions were adopted com- 
mending the decision of the peace conference that Polish troops must 
withdraw from Lithuania, and asking the American Government to 
recognize the independence of 5,000,000 Lithuanians and 35,000,000 
Ukrainians, neither of which newly created republics will even again 
consent to be subject to Poland or Russia. 



LITHUANIAN SOLDIERS TO GET PUBLIC LAND. 

By The Associated Press. 

Daily Sentinel. Milwaukee. Wis.. May l.'j, 1019. 

NEW YORK — The Lithuanian council of ministers on Satur- 
day decided to distribute the public lands of Lithuania among soldiers, 
according to cable messages received by the Lithuanian national 
council on Saturday. Every Lithuanian soldier will receive from 20 
to 52 acres, which he will not be allowed to sell or rent. 

K 



LITHUANIA MAY USE ARMS IN HER STRONG PROTEST. 

Interference of Poles Has Reached Stage Were Clash May Occur. 

ALLIES ARE INTERESTED. 

News. Wilkes-Barre. Pa.. July l.j, 1919. 

Polish-Lithuanian relations have reached the point where 
military retaliation on the part of Lithuania is expected daily. The 
Polish diet professes a desire to renew fraternal relations with Lithu- 
ania, insinuating that the country shall have autonomy under Polish 
control. But the self-determination of Lithuania, in the opinion of 
its leaders, excludes Polish interference of any sort, since the Lithu- 
anians desire complete independence. The Lithuanian people vigor- 
ously repudiate Polish interference and have protested to the Peace 
Conference against the Polish invasion of Lithuania, declaring that 
friendship is impossible before the Polish army leaves the govern- 
ments of Vilna and Grodno. The Allies have been requested to 
sharpen restrictions on General Haller's troops and to prevent en- 
croachments by the Polish imperialists against Lithuanian freedom. 

In the British Parliament, last Monday, Cecil Harmsworth, 
under-secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was questioned by 
Colonel Wedgewood as to the Allied policy with regard to Lithu- 
ania. He was asked whether the Allies sanctioned the Polish occu- 
pation of the Lithuanian capital city of Vilna, whether it was true 
that the Lithuanians desired to have no connection with Poland, 
and whether the actions of the Polish army in Vilna had not further 
embittered the relations between those two distinct races. The 
answer to the first part of the question was in the negative. Captain 
Ormsby Gore then asked, "Is it not a fact that the Poles, unauthor- 
ized by the Allies, took Vilna, and massacred 2,000 Jews and put 
large numbers of Lithuanians to the sword without Allied sanction?" 
No answer was returned. 

Polish agents are resorting to propaganda in the churches of 
the occupied districts of Vilna and Grodno. Archbishop Theoforo- 
wich, who made a notorious record in the Lemberg pogroms, has 
arrived in Vilna to direct the work of colonization. Lithuanian state 
employees have been dismissed and Poles substituted. The Lithu- 
anian populace is very restive under Pdlish usurpation. The Polish 
army, as Ukrainia, pretends to fight the Bolsheviki, but the Polish 
expressions of friendly spirit toward the Lithuanians differ from 
their deeds. 

The Lithuanian Military Situation. 

According to the official summary of the Lithuanian military 
situation during the month of May, issued by the Lithuanian General 

88 



SiafF, the Lithuanian National Army commanded by Gcneral-in-chicf 
Zukaiiskas is holding the Eastern line from Grodno, Orany, Evie, 
Vilkemir, Ponjeviez, and Bauske. At the Courland frontier, Lithu- 
anian troops arc reinforced by Letts and Esthonians under mixed 
commands, and successful operations are being carried out under a 
common understanding against the Bolsheviki. An offensive was 
launched on the Lithuanian front from Vilna northwards, and the 
Bolsheviki were recently pushed back near Ponieviez. 

On the Southern front Vilna and the entire zone south of that 
city was on the point of delivery from the Bolsheviks in the middle 
of April, thanks to a Lithuanian offensive launched a few weeks 
pre\ivously, when suddenly a number of Polish detachments, seizing 
upon the situation and acting without previous agreement with the 
Lithuanian Government, poured in from the South and occupied parts 
of Lithuania, including the city of Vilna. 

The Polish armies of occupation in Lithuania arc pursuing a 
clearly hostile policy, characterized by acts of pillage, persecution, 
and even extermination in mass of Lithuanian citizens. As a result 
the attention of the Lithuanian army has been diverted from the 
Bolshevist front to defensive action against the Poles, and the Bolshe- 
vik menace has become more serious than ever. 

All cfTorts on the part of the Lithuanians to obtain friendly 
co-operative action from the Poles against their common enemy have 
failed. 



THE BALTIC STATES. 
In Favor of the Recognition of Their Independence. 
Mew York Times, December J, JOI'J. 
To the bMitor of The New York Times: 

Congratulations to The Times for opening a window on the 
Baltic problem. Your editorial article of Nov. 28 was as sound and 
succinct an exposition of the fundamentals as one could ask; ami 
the dispatches of Walter Duranty throw a flood of light on the 
present complicated and dangerous situations in Esthonia, Latvia, 
and Lithuania. Captured German documents (printed in the Revue 
Baltique of Paris) confirm Mr. Duranty 's statements regarding the 
German-Bait plot to exterminate the Letts, to plant German colonists 
along that bridge between Prussia and Russia. 

It is high time that these heroic peoples, who have had to 
fight both German and Russian for a full year after the armistice, 
received some recognition from the United States Governtr^ent. Our 

87 



Government was once foremost in extending fellowship to peoples 
who have freed themselves. But at least twice during the Peace 
Conference a collective de facto recognition of the Baltic republics 
was defeated by America, on the ground that it would constttute a 
dismemberment of Russia. The right of conquest is the only right 
that Russia possesses over these non-Slavic peoples. They have 
formally offered to confirm in perpetuity Russia's access to their 
ports and use of their railways. 

All the great powers except the United States have indivitlually 
extended de facto recognition to the democratic Governments of 
Esthonia and Latvia. Great Britain has recognized the inde- 
pendence of Lithuania. Trade and postal communication has been 
re-established between the Baltic and the allied nations, and between 
the United States and Germany. But the million or more Letts and 
Lithuanians in America cannot even exchange letters with their 
relatives in the old countiy, because the Post Office Department 
considers Latvia and Lithuania a proscribed part of Russia. 

The State Department departed from its usual Russian policy 
in recognizing the independence of Finland, thereby strengthening 
the forces of order and democracy in that northern republic. Recog- 
nition of the Baltic republics, which may be framed in such a way 
as not to preclude an eventual reconciliation with a democratic Russia, 
would enable them to obtain credits and supplies here, instead of 
paying usurious rates to French and English bankers. It would be 
an immense stimulus to the Baltic peoples in the last stages of their 
struggle against Bolshevism and German imperiahsm, and fortify 
their morale against the difficult days of reconstruction ahead. 

SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON, 
Lecturer on History, Harvard University. 

Concord, Mass., Nov. 30, 1919. 



POPE BENEDICT AIDS LITHUANIA. 
Claim of Little Country to Independence Supported by His Holiness. 

Intermountain, Salt Lake City, Utah. August 2, 1919. 

Paris. — J. Staugaitis, vice-president of the Lithuanian Taryba 
(congress) and head of the second Lithuanian mission to Pope 
Benedict, which has arrived in Paris from Rome, states that His 
Holiness received the commission with particular benevolence and 
expressed cordial sympathy with the aspirations of the Lithuanian 
people, that he detained the commission in conversation for double 



the time appointed for the audience, and that when they departed 
he bestowed his blessing on the whole nation. Mr. Staugaitis an- 
nounces that henceforth Lithuania will maintain a permanent repre- 
sentati\-e at the Vatican. 

This is the second time that Pope Benedict has unqualifiedly 
endorsed the Lithuanians' claims for recognition as an independent 
nation. Following an audience granted Count Alfred Tyszkiewicz, 
envoy extraordinary from the Lithuanian government to the Vatican, 
and in reply to a letter setting forth the Lithuanian claims and their 
bases, the Holy Father sent the following reply through his secretary 
of state, Cardinal Caspari : 

"The sentiments of deference towards the supreme ecclesias- 
tical authority expressed by your Excellency in the name of the 
Lithuanian government have been particularly agreeable to the Holy 
Father, who knows well and appreciates greatly the noble qualities 
and virtues of the Lithuanian people exhibited not only through the 
polit;cai importance they had in the past, but again and above all 
th: f.ugh the firmness and constancy they displayed in defense of the 
C. .holic faith in the face of the gravest difficulties. The Holy See 
does not doubt that a most brilliant future is reserved for Lithuania 
after the prompt amelioration of the terrible damage caused by the 
war. It expresses the wish that to Lithuania too may be granted 
the right of self-determination and that th'.- generous Lithuanians 
must soon bring to the concert of rations precious contributions of 
new energy intensified by th ir fa''- and reinforced by the happy 
acquisition of their liberty. Th ■ I. '• See will not fail to favor all 
that tends to the realization of . c ,.- and legitimate aspirations 
of Lithuanians and the safe-guard .ig 'n <- ^ir religious interests. It 
nourishes the firm hope that Litl.aania, {>■;- its part, remembering 
always the prolific results produced even in civilian affairs by the 
happy understanding of two powers, will alv»'ays preserve toward the 
Holy See its traditional sentiments of filial ve'c-ation. The Holy 
See accords with all its heart to you and to all its Catholic sons of 
Lithuania Apostolic Benediction." 

(Signed) CARDINAL GASFAn. 



BRIGADE OF OUR MEN JOIN ARMY OF LITHUANIA. 

American. New York City, September 3, 1919. 

Paris, Sept. 2. — An American brigade for service in the Lithu- 
anian army has been formed, the work being a complete success. 

89 



I'his announcement is made by the military mission of the Lithuanian 
delegation to the Peace Conference. 

Enough demobilized American officers to form the staff have 
applied for commissions. Many discharged enlisted men have entered 
the ranks, it is said. 

The Lithuanian Government is reported to be negotiating with 
a prominent American insurance company to insure the men along 
the lines followed by the American Army's War Insurance Bureau. 



WORLD MENACE SEEN IN POLAND. 

Lithuanian Premier Says New Empire Will Be Breeder of Militarism. 

By ISAAC DON LEVINE. 

Nfivs. Detroit, Mich., August 23, 1919. 

Kovnu, Aug. 20. — (Via Copenhagen, Aug. 22.) — "Poland is 
becoming a second Austria-Hungary and a constant menace to the 
peace of the world," declared the Lithuanian premier and foreign 
minister, M. Slezevicius, today. "We fully support an ethnographic 
Poland, but when the Poles occupy Grodno, which is White Russian; 
Viliia, which is Lithuanian; Minsk, which is exclusively White Rus- 
sian; Lemberg, which is Ruthenian, and seek to occupy Vitebsk, 
which is Lettish, and also parts of the Ukraine, without mentioning 
German and Czech territory, they create a new Balkans. 

"The Polish Empire of 40,000,000 population will never be 
strong when it contains 18,000,000 Poles, with the rest Lithuanians, 
White Russians, Letts, Ukrainians, Czechs, Germans and Jews. 

"Breeder of Militarism." 

"Such a Poland will be an eternal breeding ground for Euro- 
pean militarism. France desires that Lithuania shall be incorporated 
with Poland, but we refuse to become part of a state doomed to 
collapse sooner or later. 

'The Poles, wherever they come, institute persecutions. In 
Vilna, which from the Thirteenth Century has been the cultural ana 
economic capital of Lithuania, the Poles have arrested our public 
men, disrupted our high schools and philantropic institutions, closed 
the libraries, removed valuable property and pillaged the country by 
using the same system as that of the Germans when they occupied 
this region. 

■'Again and again, the Poles crossed the demarkation line 

90 



(li;i\vii by the Peace Conference un I.illuiaiiiaii territory, grabbing 
new slices of our country. 

"Are Devouring Us." 

" 1 he Poles, who are armed with French weapons and have tlic 
nii.ral backing of France, are slowly devouring us. They have just 
advanced another 30 miles over the demarkation line without a pre- 
text as there are no Bolshiviki in the Suwalki province. 

"\\ e are at the mercy of our enemies and are receiving no 
helj) from the Allies even against the German occupation of half of 
ou' country. The people are suffering because the Germans arc 
demanding that they leave. The Germans would depart, if ordered 
to do so by the Allies, but no such order has yet been given and no 
intimation that the Allies want the Germans to get out. 

"We are thus left alone to struggle with the Germans and 
Bolsheviki. Our only hope is in the United States which can appreci- 
ate our longing for freedom." 



LITHUANIANS COMPLAIN OF POLANDERS. 

Assort That Paderewski's People Have Gone Over Line 
Established By Allies. 

Scrautonian. Scranton, Pa., August 3. 1019. 

\ew York, .Aug. 2. — A cable received today by the Lithuanian 
national council from its representative in Paris states that Mr. Sleze- 
vicius, prime minister of Lithuania, has sent the following dispatch 
from Kovno to the allies supreme council in Paris: 

"The Lithuanian government has just learned that the parlia- 
ment in Warsaw, pursuant to proposition by a parliamentary group, 
has urged the commander-in-chief of the Polish army not to respect 
the temporary line of demarcation drawn between Lithuania and 
Poland by the council of four, and has commanded the Polish army 
to remain in all jjlaces already occupied, basing their determination 
on facts which are jnire invention, such as that the troops of the 
Lithuanian side of the demarcation line are composed of Germans 
as well as Lithuanians. That is a lie, as the allied military missions 
to Kovno can prove. Likewise, the cthnogra])hical data of the resolu- 
tion is entirely lacking in truth." 

The Paris cable states, as a matter of fact, the Germans have 
already evacuated Kovno and all of Eastern Lithuania, and that 
before leaving Kovno they burned their barracks and forcibly seized 
and sent to Germany twenty carloads of provisions, supplies and 

91 



cattle, including four cars of American flour and two of condensed 
milk. 

Dispajches received by the Lithuanian national council from 
Lithuania and Paris during the past several weeks indicate that 
Poland is carrying on a systematic campaign for the subjugation 
and annexation of Lithuania, despite the expressed commands of the 
allied powers, to whom Poland is looking for recognition. 

Realizing the justice of the Lithuanian people's claims for 
recognition as an independent nation, and in response to appeals by 
the Lithuanian government for protection against the further in- 
vasion of Lithuania proper by Polish troops, the allied council drew 
a line of demarcation between Lithuania and Poland and forbade 
the Poles to pass it, pending the formal consideration of the entire 
question by the council of the league of nations. According to the 
dispatches received from abroad the Poles have repeatedly crossed 
the line and occupied several important cities and towns in Lithuania, 
including the capital, Vilna, and now, in open defiance, refuse to 
withdraw. 



LITHUANIANS WALK, PROVE PATRIOTISM. 
Must Speak Polish to Buy Railroad Tickets; Prefer to Travel Alone. 

Journal, Lansing, Mich.. August 15, 1919. 

Walking fifteen or twenty miles to market instead of buying 
a railroad ticket is not considered so much of an economy as a proof 
of patriotism in Lithuania. 

"Our people, whose sons are shedding blood at the front for 
Lithuania's freedom, walk miles to Kovno on errands because they 
cannot buy a railroad ticket," says an editorial in Lietuva, a Lithu- 
anian newspaper, copies of which have just been received at the New 
York headquarters of the Lithuanian National Council, 6 West 48th 
Street. 

Polish military authorities, where they have obtained control 
of Lithuanian railroads, have issued an order requiring all persons 
to speak Polish in securing railroad tickets and in all other inter- 
course with the authorities. 

Many Lithuanians speak nothing but their native language. 
Others in this land noted for the linguistic accomplishments of its 
population in acquiring the language of Polish, Russian, and German 
oppressors during the past centuries, make proof of their patriotism 
by refusing to use the Polish language. They prefer to walk instead. 

Lithuanians have carefully cultivated and preserved their 

92 



national entity, aspirations, .md language through thousands ot years. 
'Ihey will not forget that once l.ithuania was the most powerful and 
hijfhiy cultured state in Europe. They resent efforts to submerge 
•their language and their nationality in the new Poland. Neither 
Slavic nor Teuton in origin and speaking a distinctly different 
language more rich in tone and more ancient in history than even 
Sanscrit, Lithuanians want to govern themselves and speak their 
own language. The}' have proclaimed their independence and elected 
officials under a republican form of government. Now they are 
seeking recognition as an independent state — a state which will be 
greater in area than Denmark and Switzerland or Belgium and Hol- 
land combined and with a population greater than Denmark, Norway 
or Switzerland. 



LITHUANIA'S STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM. 

By M. K. WTSEHART. 

Leslie's Weekly, New York City, June 21, 1919. 

A small nationality that wants only what belongs to it histor- 
ically, politically and ethnographically, one that gains credit by the 
honest modesty of its territorial claims and by its aspiration for a 
truly democratic development and useful nationalism — such is 
Lithuania. 

Lithuania has not yet been recognized as this article is written, 
and this brings up the question whether modesty in diplomacy pays. 
Whether it pays or not, it makes Lithuania, its government and its 
future, one of the most interesting problems in the readjustment of 
Europe. Here is a people whose diplomacy is an expression of them- 
selves — modest, confident that right can prevail without a brass 
band. 

There is no denying that some small nationalities have been 
developed and have occupied great prominence in the peace negotia- 
tions, because they are in a position to serve the objects of a greater 
nationality. To some of us observers in Paris, it has been painful to 
see how some of the small nationalities were willing to violate the 
very principle by which they claim existence — to see Poland, 
Rumania, Jugoslavia willing to violate the principle of nationality 
and to speculate in the soil and population of their neighbors. It 
means trouble in the end. It means that every new nationality will 
be weakened in proportion to the extent that it gains sway over 
peoples and territory not rightfully belonging to it. One of the 
problems arising from the ambitions of the new nationalities concerns 
the extent to which Poland is willing to speculate in Lithuanian soil. 



But Lithuania? Where is it? The other day a dispatch came 
from Paris, referring to Lithuania as one of the Balkan States. Here 
in America there was a real little tragedy or comedy among the 
Lithuanians and Letts over the ignorance displayed as to their iden- 
tity. When the President of Lithuania was inaugurated in the capital 
of his country, a dispatch carried the information that he was being 
inaugurated as the President of Lettland ; and the same dispatch 
carried the news that the President of Lettland was being inaugurated 
as the President of Lithuania ! That was not so bad as it might have 
been, for the two countries are adjacent and their peoples are friendly. 
Yet in the Lettish and Lithuanian colonies in America the error was 
sad enough to cause real tribulation. 

In view of this confusion, I asked one of the members of 
the Lithuanian National Council, to discuss not only the aims 
of the Lithuanian Government, but also the true territorial allocation 
of this country. One of the most interesting developments of the 
interview was the fact that Lithuania's diplomacy, which in the end 
will gain recognition and prestige for the Baltic States, is exactly in 
accord with the pleasant temperament and democratic ideals of the 
nation. 

"Lithuania," he said, "has been too modest to ask for all her 
original territory, for Lithuania once included Ukrainia, White Russia 
stretching far out toward Moscow, and Lettland. These countries 
might well have claimed that they would have been the best barrier 
against Bolshevism because they are agricultural and democratic, 
whereas Poland is ruled by the gentry and has many large estates. 
Once Bolshevism strikes Poland the country will be racked to pieces. 
Instead of demanding all the great territory that was once under its 
sway, Lithuania has asked only the territory belonging to it histor- 
ocally, politically and ethnographically, territory to which no other 
country has an}' claim whatever. 

"Lithuania has been a co-belligerent of the Allies against the 
Bolsheviki, and believes that she should get greater and prompt recog- 
nition on account of this fact.. Our representatives feel that the 
United States has been too reluctant to define its position with regard 
to Lithuania. We feel that we should have been recognized, for when 
we have been once recognized, we will be in a position to make the 
necessary loans, to buy t|ie needed materials and to stabilize the life 
of the country. 

"Meanwhile the Polish chauvinists have wanted to occupy the 
State of Grodno, which contains some of the most valuable timber 
land in Europe, and which clearly belongs to Lithuania. Poland has 
also claimed the capital of Lithuania, Vilna, because there are many 

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PdIcs there; and not only the capital and ttic State of Vilna, but the 
State of Suvalki, which is inhabited entirely by Lithuanian-speaking 
I)eople, except in the southern part. If Poland's unjustified claims 
were granted, Lithuania would have left only the State of Kovno, a. 
very small territory in comjiarison with what Lithuania rightly claims. 
None of this territory claimed by Poland ever belonged to her, and 
never before the war did she set up any claim to it. 

"The Lithuanians have been fighting the Bolshcviki with all 
their resources. W hile the Lithuanians were thus fighting, the Poles 
announced that they were willing to fight the Bolshcviki, though no 
one else wanted to. At that time the Lithuanians suspected that the 
object of the Poles was to occupy Lithuanian territory. Ultimately 
when Lithuania protested against Polish occupation of Grodno, the 
Peace Conference said in reply that such military occupation should 
not mean ])ermanent occupation ; that the question concerning this 
territory should be taken up by the Peace Conference or the League 
of Nations at the proper time; and we rejoice to see that the Peace 
Conference has required Germany to cede the section north of Niemen 
with part of Memel to the Associated Powers themselves. There is 
no question but that Poland seeks to exert sovereignty ovei^ territory 
that is strictly Lithuanian, though Poland's claims would not be in- 
sisted upon to the same extent if Lithuania were willing to enter into 
a personal union by which Poland should represent both Lithuania 
and Poland diplomatically, somewhat after the manner Austria repre- 
sented Hungary. 

"When our claims were presented to the Peace Conference, our 
representatives were told that the Conference had com]>lete sympathy 
with the small nationalities. We ask recognition at once. W'e expect 
it. We deserve it, not only because Lithuania has persisted as a 
national entity in spite of hardship and oppression, but also because 
our intentions are those making for peace, order, economic develop- 
ment and national usefulness. 

"The desire and agitation for complete independence for Lithu- 
ania has existed among the educated people since early in the 19th 
century. It arose among the common people in the latter part of the 
same century, and the agitation became powerful in 1885. Even 
though the use of the Lithuanian language had been prohibited, news- 
papers were printed in other countries and were circulated extensively 
in Lithuania. This national sentiment was spread not only through 
the newspapers, but also by Lithuanians returning from the United 
States. It went so far that in 1905, during the Russian revolution, a 
convention was held, at which all factions were represented. This 
was called the Congress for Lithuanian National Independence. The 

96 



agitation made great headway duriny tho Japanese war, but after th'^ 
war Russia succeeded in subduing Lithuania. 

"/\s soon as the war of 1914 broke out, Lithuania formulated 
her demands — that the Lithuanian part of East Prussia should be 
returned to Lithuania, and also that what formerly were the Russian 
provinces of Kovno, Vilna, Grodno, Suvalki, should be returned to 
Lithuania, and that Lithuania should be given full independence. 

"The Lithuanian Government has a clear case to present to 
the League of Nations — that the province of Kovno is absolutely 
Lithuanian, ethnologically anl linguistically ; that the greater part of 
Suvalki is similar to Kovno; that in half of the province of Vilna 
Lithuanian is spoken; that originally all of these provinces were 
Lithuanian. Part of Grodno is entirely inhabited by Lithuanian- 
speaking people and the rest by White Russians (Getvingi), and old 
Lithuanian race. The native population of East Prussia has always 
been Lithuanian. 

"The demand for independence has now reached every village 
and hamlet throughout Lithuania. Several conventions have been 
held abroad since 1915, when the country was taken by the Germans. 
These conventions were held in Switzerland, Russia and the United 
States, and all demanded independence. In Lithuania today, all the 
political organizations that formerly operated secretly are working 
openly. The demand for independence and recognition of Lithuanian 
nationality is manifested at all concerts, at church services, at all 
popiilar gatherings. 

"The Lithuanians, as a people, are in many ways similar to the 
Scandinavians, they are not excitable. They are meticulously honest, 
hospitable, religious. In the past they have not been commercially 
inclined, and have preferred such pursuit as law, medicine, engineering, 
schcolteaching. 

"The country is largely agricultural. Owing to this fact many 
of the country's older customs have been preserved. At Easter there 
is always a full week's ceremony. Burial, christening and wedding 
ceremonies are always observed with the old national customs. 

"We now find that Lithuania has perhaps relied too much on 
the triumph of right and justice without advertising and propaganda. 
The Lithuanians thought that what belonged to them so plainly would 
be accorded them, and that the Peace Conference, at the earliest date 
possible, would open the way for their beginning a stable national 
hie. Since it became apparent that the world didn't understand their 
cause, thcv have held conventions in New York, Fitt.5burgh and 
Philadelphia 

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